Love Always Finds A Way
by InkFairy
Summary: With her once indestructible friendship with Harry and Ron in shambles, Hermione seeks refuge in the past. The brightest witch of her age finds herself in the time of the Marauders, and things get only more complicated when she begins to fall for one of them.
1. Different Worlds Falling Together

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 1: Different Worlds Falling Together  
  
Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. The summer after seventh year, the summer of terror. For the Golden Trio, Hogwarts was a done deal.   
  
Hermione Granger graduated Head Girl, with top marks and thirteen N.E.W.T.s. She spoke at Graduation, Harry and Ron beaming right in front of her; Remus Lupin, who came back to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, smiling his kind warm smile that now always held a sense of sadness; and all of her professors, even Snape, hailed her. But her parents were the proudest, wore the biggest smiles (they were dentists after all).  
  
Her parents, they were the reason she was at Grimmauld Place along with Harry, Lupin, Tonks, and all of the Weasleys. Well, Voldemort and his Death Eaters were more responsible for that.  
  
Were her parents tortured, murdered, then their bodies incinerated because they were the parents of the best friend of Harry Potter, or simply because they were Muggles? No one knew.  
  
Hermione fought valiantly when they invaded her house in the dead of the night. She brought upon the same fate her parents suffered to two Death Eaters before she was cornered by none other than Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange. Whether they were simply going to kill her off or torture information out of her, she never found out because the Order showed up. The Death Eaters kept up a good fight, but it was they who Disapparated in the end. And, when they were gone, realization hit Hermione faster than a bullet. Her parents were dead, she was an orphan.  
  
Her sense of loss was overwhelming. She stood there, wanting the ground to swallow her up. Perhaps that is why Remus Lupin came up to her, noticing how pale she looked and that sense of deepest loss that was betrayed on her face that he himself knew too well, too often. He asked her if she was all right, but she never got to answer him for shock and exhaustion had its way with her and she fainted right into his arms.  
  
~~~~~~  
  
So, Hermione had been at Grimmauld Place for two weeks, hardly eating anything and sleeping only minutes at a time, before she she first started to feel the pangs of boredom. There had been no funeral for her parents. Their bodies had been burned to ash along with the rest of her house and her belongings.   
  
Only Harry could really say that he knew what she was feeling, and maybe that is why it fell to him to try to talk to her. She was very polite to him, let him come into her room whenever he wanted her to open the door. But instead of finding out what she was really feeling, he found themselves telling her how he felt.  
  
Maybe that is why he started to fall in love with her, or maybe it was just because it was bound to happen. She was the only one who knew how he felt, and he needed someone to talk to who would not be over sympathetic. She knew exactly what to say. Or maybe he started to fall in love with her just because he needed someone else to love as much as he had loved Sirius.  
  
But he could not tell this to anyone. He certainly could not tell this to her, and he could not tell it to Ron, because, though Ron thought no one else knew, Harry knew that Ron had fallen for her as well. Ron was his best friend after all.  
  
But that best friend thing works both ways, and Ron knew that Harry had fallen for her. They started to grow distant from each other, started to see the differences they had had from day one, differences that seemed so trivial back then but so obvious now.  
  
They tried to hide the fact that the Golden Trio was breaking up from Hermione. Harry did not visit her in her room anymore, lest he hint that Ron and he were not on the best terms. But, what everybody did not know, was that Hermione knew. She knew that she was the reason the best, strongest friendship in the world was broken up.  
  
Of course, Hermione grew even more withdrawn if that was possible. She started to take out something that was looking really friendly in her situation: a time-turner. No, she never really turned it into Professor McGonagall like she told Harry and Ron. She kept it, had not used it in four years, but she still had it all the same.  
  
She took to twirling the chain around her finger, around and around, contemplating how many turns it would take to go back to the afternoon before her parents died. Of course, she never got up the nerve to do it, so the number of turns needed just amounted. She knew how dangerous it was to mess with time, but anything would be better than this, right? She would never have come to Grimmauld Place. She never would have let Harry fall in love with her.  
  
She was twirling the chain as usual, careful to never turn the hourglass itself. She could twirl the chain slowly for hours for it was so very long. Or maybe she should just leave Grimmauld and go to Hogwarts. Dumbledore was always ever so kind to her, as was McGonagall. Maybe, without her there, Harry and Ron could mend their friendship  
  
"Hogwarts," she murmured, reaching out to take up her Head Girl badge which always lay on her bedside table, a memory of happier times. It was shiny, and looked brand new, except for a noticeable nick in the middle, the souvenier of a curse Malfoy had sent towards her in her last year. Picking up her badge was a very, very big mistake for the hand that reached down was the hand that kept the hourglass stationary. It started spinning, unraveling all the twirls she had twisted onto the chain. Her hands clenched around her badge and time-turner, giving her the smallest grasp of something solid. She was moving backwards, out of time and place. She was getting very, very dizzy.  
  
The last twirl on the chain unraveled and the hourglass stopped, so still it did not seem to have been moving. Her surroundings became still at last, and she saw a familiar marble staircase materialize. She was sprawled on the ground in the middle of the entrance hall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  
  
"Seriously, Padfoot, how many girls does that make this term?" said a voice from the staircase.  
  
"Around thirteen," answered another voice.  
  
"You don't want to keep it at thirteen," said yet another voice.  
  
"Well, it will be fourteen, next week," he promised.  
  
She looked up and saw four boys coming down the staircase. Immediately, her brain registered what one of them had said: Padfoot.  
  
"Bloody hell," she swore.  
  
"That is what I said when I first saw him," said a good-natured voice.  
  
She was looking straight at James Potter,(who was the one who had spoken), Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew, all seventeen years old.  
  
"Because my looks simply floored him," said Sirius suavely.  
  
Hermione stared at him, partly because she knew he would be dead in around twenty years, but also because he was so handsome. Azkaban had obviously drained some of his good looks though he still had vestiges of it, but to see it in full force right in front of her took her breath away.  
  
"That's what everyone else does when they first see me," Sirius said.  
  
"Yes, and then they run the completely opposite way, screaming in terror," said James. "I, however, am a god."  
  
"You sure think a lot of yourselves," said Hermione in surprise. She always thought James Potter to be a bit like Harry, quiet and rather unsure of himself.  
  
"No, just the two of them," said Remus, stepping up. "Where are your manners, guys?" He turned back to Hermione. "I'm Remus Lupin, and these are James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew."  
  
Hermione shook hands with them in turn, trying to keep herself from recoiling when she shook the hand of Peter Pettigrew.  
  
"You're just a god to Evans," said Sirius to James, obviously not having forgotten the insult.  
  
"Yes, he is," answered someone from behind them.  
  
A girl with long, dark red hair and startlingly green eyes - familiar eyes - walked up to James and planted a kiss on his lips. Sirius looked the other way in disgust.  
  
"Hello, I am Lily Evans," said the girl, offering her hand.  
  
Lily , thought Hermione, Harry's mum.  
  
"And you are?" prompted Lily.  
  
Hermione shook her best friend's mother's hand, thinking fast. "Rosemary," she said, saying the first name that came to mind.   
  
Add one cup crushed rosemary leaves, and stir three times. It was a line in the directions to make a potion that she had uncharacteristically misread, resulting in a zero. The fury of Snape and her humiliation caused that line to be emblazoned into her memory.  
  
"What are you doing here anyway?" asked Sirius rather rudely. "You've got to be old enough to be a seventh year, but I haven't ever seen you before."  
  
"I..." Hermione tried to think up of some excuse. She couldn't tell them she was from the future. They wouldn't believe that. She, herself, wouldn't believe that.  
  
A crunching noise brought her out of her musings. They all turned their heads to see Peter Pettigrew pick up something from the ground.  
  
"I'm sorry," he said, handing her a long chain. "Was this yours?"  
  
Hermione stared at the chain, but the hourglass was missing. She looked to the floor, and near Peter's foot was the crushed hourglass, sand sparkling on the floor.  
  
She had no way back. She was stuck twenty years before her time with no way back. She clutched at the marble banister for support. She could hear them asking her what was wrong from far, far away. She felt her fingers slip from the banister. She was falling to the ground, falling into unconsciousness, falling right into Remus Lupin's arms; and her Head Girl badge fell from her hand, unnoticed and unseen by anybody. 


	2. Befriending the Past

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 2: Befriending the Past  
  
"I think we should bring her to the hospital ward!" said Lily anxiously. "Remus, can you carry her that far?"  
  
"Yeah, sheÕs so light," assured Remus.  
  
"It's a good thing you caught her, Remus," said Peter. "I never would have. You're so quick."  
  
"Reflexes," explained Sirius with a wink. "And strength."  
  
"Complimenting someone other than yourself," said James, patting him on the back. "Good for you!"  
  
"James, you and Sirius run ahead and tell Madame Portman that we're bringing her," ordered Lily. "Remus and I'll come with Rosemary. Peter, go find Professor Dumbledore. I haven't ever seen her around here. I'm not sure whether she's a student or not."  
  
They all, surprisingly, followed her instructions. In a manner of seconds, only Lily and Remus were left in the entrance hall.  
  
"Is she breathing?" asked Lily, checking Hermione's pulse.  
  
"Yes," confirmed Remus, seeing the slight rise and fall of her chest.  
  
"I don't know what's wrong with her, but try not to move her head just in case she's got a concussion or brain trauma."  
  
"How do you know so much?" asked Remus as he, carrying Hermione, and Lily slowly made their way to the hospital wing.  
  
"My father's a doctor," explained Lily. "I wanted to become one too before I found out I was a witch, but I think this is much better."  
  
Hermione had opened her eyes unnoticed by the other two.  
  
"So do I," she said quietly, agreeing with the future Mrs. Potter.  
  
Remus was so surprised that he almost dropped her.  
  
"Do you feel all right?" he asked her anxiously, setting her down in a sitting position on a bench .  
  
"Yes," she answered, smiling at his worry. "I just got shocked, I guess."  
  
"Was the thing on the end of your necklace important?" asked Lily interestedly, sitting down next to her and holding up the chain "Peter's so very clumsy."  
  
A strange look passed over Hermione's face as she took up the chain that was not lost to Remus and Lily.  
  
"Not really. Just a matter of sentimental value, I guess. Not even reparo could fix it now, though," she said sadly, twirling the chain around her finger.  
  
"Are you a witch?" asked Remus, who was sitting on the opposite side of her.  
  
"Yes," said Hermione, reaching into her pocket for her wand. "Oh, bloody, bloody hell."  
  
She stood up and even checked the back pockets of her jeans, though she knew it was no hope. She never stowed away her wand there. She'd heard too many stories from Mad-Eye Moody about people losing their buttocks.  
  
"I didn't have it with me," she whispered in dismay.  
  
"What?" asked Lily.  
  
"My wand," said Hermione.  
  
She sat back down heavily. Stuck twenty years before her time without a wand wasn't very reassuring.  
  
"What happened?" asked James, running down the hall with Sirius. "I already told Madam Pomfrey you were coming...oh, you're awake, Rosemary."  
  
"Say, where do you come from?" asked Sirius, flashing her a smile. "You're not from around here. You're not a student, I mean."  
  
"Please, do not badger her anymore, Sirius," said a voice behind him.  
  
Sirius turned and Hermione saw Professor Dumbledore coming toward them.   
  
"Curiosity killed the cat, Mr. Black," he added.  
  
"But I'm not a cat. I'm a dog," whispered Sirius to James  
  
"Please, I must speak to her alone," requested Dumbledore, taking Hermione's hand.  
  
Completely mystified, the others let Hermione get up, and they watched Professor Dumbledore lead her away.  
  
"Hello, Hermione Granger," he said, as they entered is office.  
  
He motioned for her to sit down in a chair, which she did nervously. He took his seat opposite her, his desk in between them. It took her to this long to realise what he had addressed her.  
  
"You know my real name," she stated.  
  
"Yes, I also know where you come from, time and place, and why you are here," he added, eyes twinkling. "And I am here to help you."  
  
Hermione looked curiously at him, taking in his appearance. For twenty years earlier, he didn't look much different. There were fewer lines on his face and he looked more happy. He probably didn't carry so many cares yet.  
  
"How can you? My time-turner broke." She held up the chain as evidence.  
  
"Time turners are not the only way to travel backwards or forwards in time, Miss Granger. I will be researching other methods to help you."  
  
"Thank you, Professor Dumbledore."  
  
"Now, I must warn you not to disclose any information to anyone else about their futures. Time travel is a dangerous thing, but changing the future is even more dangerous."  
  
"I understand, Professor Dumbledore. I won't tell anything." committed Hermione, not knowing how hard it would be to keep this promise. "But people are going to ask questions."  
  
"Tell them you are going to be learning to teach under Professor Flitwick," he said. "If I am correct, you did receive a hundred and twelve percent on one of your tests. You were homeschooled. Your full name shall be Rosemary Gardener."  
  
Hermione made a mental note of everything and nodded.  
  
"Excellent. Now that you are here, I suggest you go and have some fun. Four young gentlemen and a young lady would me more than happy to help you. In fact, I think Lily would be glad to share her room with you. She's got the Head Girl's dormitory, though I'm sure you are acquainted with it."  
  
"Thank you, Professor Dumbledore, for all your help," she said sincerely, loving the old wizard in front of her.  
  
He stood up to let her out the door, and she gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.  
  
"Oh, you're very welcome, Miss Granger," laughed Dumbledore. "They are having dinner in the Great Hall right now. I propose you go and eat your fill. You certainly need filling up."  
  
She walked out the door.  
  
"And have fun, Miss Granger. You don't have such opportunities in the future."  
  
~~~~~~  
  
So it was that Hermione found herself sitting at the Gryffindor House Table, surrounded by four Marauders who kept her entertained. James and Sirius's antics were hilarious, and Remus added his quick wit to their jokes. Peter wasn't very good with jokes, but he sometimes served as the basis for them.  
  
Lily turned up halfway through dinner and sat down right next to James, who had been saving a seat for her.  
  
"Guess what, Rosemary?" she said excitedly. "Dumbledore said you were going to share a room with me!"  
  
"Only if it isn't any trouble."  
  
"Not at all!"  
  
"Oh?" said James lightly. "How about our nightly rendezvous?"  
  
Hermione blushed. She did not want to find out that Harry was conceived on the bed she was going to be sleeping on.  
  
"It's okay, I'll-"  
  
"Don't mind him, Rosemary," said Lily. "And what are you talking about James! Because I've never had a nightly rendezvous with you in your sense of the phrase. Of course, you could have had one with someone else."  
  
"Lily! You know I'd never -!" protested James.  
  
"I know, I know," pacified Lily, kissing him on the cheek. "So, Sirius, I heard you broke up with Kathy?"  
  
"What's new?" remarked Remus casually.  
  
"Hmm, what does that make this term? Thirteen?" mused Lily. "Unlucky if you stay that way for long. Come, Rosemary, I'll show you our room."  
  
Hermione allowed herself to be led away by Lily. When they were out the doors of the Great Hall, Sirius turned to his fellow Marauders.  
  
"I won't stay at thirteen for long," he told them.  
  
"Oh?" said Remus absent-mindedly. This was nothing new.  
  
"I've found number fourteen," he continued, pointing at the door.  
  
"Hey! Lily's mine!" objected James.  
  
"I'm not talking about Lily, you stupid prat," said Sirius. "I'm talking about Rosemary."  
  
Remus upset his goblet of pumpkin juice. Somehow, Sirius's statement did not sit well with him. 


	3. Meeting in the Dormitory of the Head Gir

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 3: Meeting in the Dormitory of the Head Girl  
  
Later that night, Hermione slipped into a pair of comfortable pajamas, LilyÕs. After taking a warm, long bath, she felt very contented, despite the fact that she was a score of years before her time.  
  
She glanced out the window. There was snow on the ground.  
  
"What's the date?" she asked.  
  
"February 1, 1978."  
  
She was about to snuggle into the covers of the four poster bed that Lily had transfigured the sofa into when Lily said.  
  
"I wouldn't go to sleep yet," she advised. "James will be coming at midnight."  
  
"Oh, do you want me to leave?"  
  
"No," smiled Lily. "He's coming with Sirius, Remus, and Peter. We're going to be out all night tonight, I expect. You're just going to have to come with us. I don't want to be the only girl there."  
  
"Of course," promised Hermione. "What are we doing?"  
  
"With James and Sirius, who knows?"  
  
"So they're the troublemakers of the group?" Hermione had expected as much.  
  
"Yes. James used to be very conceited, but he's deflated his ego a bit, so that's why I went out with him. Sirius is a player. I'd watch out for him if I were you."   
  
Unbeknownst to them, the door of the dormitory opened soundlessly, and closed a few moments later.  
  
"Remus is quiet. He keeps them in line. They're all so very smart. Peter isn't as smart as the other three, but he can be nice."  
  
"Now that you know all about us, Rosemary," spoke a voice, "tell us about yourself."  
  
Lily and Hermione both turned towards the direction of the voice. Lily rolled her eyes, but Hermione laughed. She should have expected it. Harry's Inivisibility Cloak had been his dad's after all.  
  
"Show yourselves," commanded Lily.  
  
James, Sirius, and Remus seemed to materialize out of thin air.  
  
"Pretty neat, huh?" said Sirius, who was the one who had spoken.  
  
"Oh, if you mean the Invisibility Cloak, I've seen a few," replied Hermione carelessly.  
  
"Why did you come? It's 11:30, not midnight. They're still patrolling the corridors. And where's Peter?" questioned Lily.  
  
"Peter didn't want to come," said James with a shrug.  
  
"And we came because we wanted to talk to Rosemary for a bit before we drag her along," said Sirius. "So, tell us about yourself," he commanded.  
  
He sat down on the bed next to her, rather close. Hermione didn't mind him. He was Harry's godfather after all.  
  
"Well, I'm Rosemary Gardener. I was homeschooled, and I'm going to learn teaching under Professor Flitwick," said Hermione. "That covers it all, I think."  
  
"Oh, you're going to become a teacher?" said Remus. "I want to become one too."  
  
Hermione smiled at him, but thought, "Poor guy. He won't get to teach until he's about thirty-three."  
  
"Do you have a boyfriend?" asked Sirius, drawing her attention back to himself.  
  
A shadow passed over her face, remember her problems with Harry and Ron.  
  
"I don't think she wants to talk about it, Black," said Lily sharply. Then, swiftly changing the subject, "What are we doing tonight?"  
  
"Let's just say that we know the password to the Slytherin common room," said Sirius mysteriously.  
  
"And?"  
  
"We're going to fix buckets of snow above each of their beds, put a preserving charm on it so doesn't melt before morning, and put a spell on the bucket to turn over when they wake up. Talk about a wake up call, huh?" said Sirius proudly.  
  
"Black, that's horrible!" exclaimed Lily. "Would you like that to be done to you?"  
  
"No, that's why we're doing it to them."  
  
"I won't have a part in it!" Lily declared. "Which of you came up with it, anyway?"  
  
Sirius pointed to James who pointed to Sirius.  
  
"I did," said Remus quietly.  
  
James and Sirius quickly lowered their hands.  
  
"Oh, yeah. It was Moony," said Sirius, quite unconvincingly.  
  
James chucked a pillow at Sirius. "No nicknames!"  
  
"It's all right," laughed Hermione. "I know all about you," she said before thinking.  
  
"WHAT?!"  
  
She clapped a hand over her mouth, absolutely petrified.  
  
"What do you know?" demanded Sirius, turning at her. His wand was out. "Speak!"  
  
Hermione hesitated. Would the future be really affected if she told them she knew their secrets? But Sirius was looking so livid that she seemed not to have a choice.  
  
"Don't scare the poor girl, Sirius," said Remus. "Let's just hear what she knows."  
  
Slowly, Sirius lowered his wand. Hermione glanced at Remus thankfully, but he looked ashen-faced too.  
  
"What do you know, Rosemary?" he asked quietly. "We swear we won't hurt you."  
  
"Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs?" she said tentatively.  
  
"But that could have slipped out during our conversation during supper," said James, waving an impatient hand. "We know you know something else."  
  
"Stag, dog, rat, and werewolf?" she said, each word becoming more and more quiet.  
  
James and Sirius leapt to their feet. Though Hermione was sure they weren't going to hurt her physically, a Memory Charm wouldn't have been out of their league. Remus intervened before they could do anything and pulled them to the far corner of the room. Hermione glanced at Lily who was looking at her curiously.  
  
She sighed, closed her eyes, and sank back down on the pillows, hoping against hope that she hadn't just changed the future.  
  
"How did you know all that?" asked a voice very near to her.  
  
Exceptionally quiet, the three Marauders had surrounded her bed.  
  
"I'm sorry, I can't tell you that," she answered truthfully, opened. "It would be dangerous, and not just for me. For all of us."  
  
They looked at each other, confused.  
  
"She could be a Slytherin! Snape could have broken his word to Dumbledore and told them all about you, Moony," said James worriedly.  
  
"And it would be his fault," Remus jerked his head towards Sirius "because he tried to practical joke him in the first place."  
  
"No, no, that's not where I learned it," said Hermione hurriedly. It would not be good if she broke up another friendship. "I can't tell you."  
  
"How much do you know about them?" asked Lily, speaking at last.  
  
"I know about them, and you too as a matter of fact," said Hermione. "That's all I'm saying about that."  
  
The three boys retreated, still considering her suspciously. She endured their stares successfully for a few minutes before getting unavoidably annoyed.  
  
"Look, I won't tell on you, if that's what you're so afraid of. No one else in this whole school...in the whole world knows about your secret except for the people in this room, and it's that matter's not going to be changed by me anyway. I've done far more dangerous things than this. I've become acquainted with a werewolf before now...or after quite really, and I really don't care if the rest of you are vampires, or hags, or God knows what else."  
  
JamesÕs features lit up. "You swear it?"  
  
"On Veritaserum itself," answered Hermione. It was an oath she, Harry, and Ron had taken to using when trying to prove their truthfulness.  
  
"Veritaserum?" repeated Sirius confusedly. "What is it?"  
  
"Truth Potion," explained Hermione, eyebrows furrowed. HadnÕt they been the smartest wizards of their time...actually, of this time.  
  
"ThereÕs no such thing," stated Lily. "Otherwise, I would have used it to get answers out of these three."  
  
Hermione's brain raced. When was Veritaserum invented? Immediately, her brain answered: 1979.  
  
"Oh, well, I was a year off," she muttered. "Never mind that," she said aloud, dismissively. "Are you going to trust me? Please, decide quickly. I've got some reading to catch up with if your answerÕs negative."  
  
The three looked at each other, then at Lily. They grinned.  
  
Sirius stepped up to her and offered her his hand. "Welcome to the world of the -"  
  
"Marauders. I know," finished Hermione, shaking his hand. "I'm glad you said yes. I had no book to read, anyway. I'd love to help you fix snow on top of the Slytherins, espcially a certain Severus Snape. I trust you're familiar with him?"  
  
They all exchanged dark looks, confirming her guess.  
  
"Oh, sure we know him," growled James. "WhatÕs he done to you?"  
  
"Let's just say I know what's he's going to do to me," said Hermione grimly.  
  
"Maybe you should be asking yourself that same question, James Potter," said Lily, putting her hands on her hips.  
"Well, he calls you you-know-what for one," said James.  
  
"What?" asked Hermione.  
  
"M-mudblood," said Sirius through gritted teeth. "It's a term for Muggle-borns. It's...it's not very civilized."  
  
"You're not very civilized yourself," said Lily, though she had winced at the word.  
  
"Have you heard it before?" asked Sirius, ignoring Lily and seeming keen to keep up a conversation with Hermione.  
  
"Oh, yes. Quite frequently," said Hermione darkly. "See, I'm not exactly a pureblood, if you haven't noticed."  
  
"What's there to notice?" said Remus. "I can never tell just from appearance whether someone's a Muggle-born or a pureblood."  
  
"Snape didn't call you one, did he?" asked Sirius indignantly.  
  
"No...not yet."  
  
The clock chimed midnight.  
  
"Well, that's it!" said James happily, picking up his cloak. "It's time. Lils, are you coming with us?"  
  
"Don't call me 'Lils', James, and no, I'm not," she said, crossing her arms. "And you won't either, James Potter, if you want to stay my girlfriend."  
  
"Tough decision," said Sirius. "Choose well."  
  
James went over to Lily and kissed her sweetly on the cheek. She dropped her icy demeanor and hugged him back, obviously thinking that he was going to stay. After they broke apart, however, James turned to the others.  
  
"Okay, let's go," he said, suddenly businesslike, throwing the cloak over them all.  
  
"What?!" exclaimed Lily. "James, I thought you were going to stay with me! And Rosemary, I know their my friends and all, but this trick just crosses the line!"  
  
"Lily, I promise I won't get in trouble," said the empty space in front of the green-eyed witch. "I will be very careful."  
  
"You can't possibly not get into trouble when you're with those three," muttered Lily, who was answered by the opening and closing of her dormitory door. 


	4. Midnight Wanderings

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 4: Midnight Wanderings  
  
Sirius led the way to the entrance hall, and opened the doors noiselessly, and closed noiselessly behind them.  
  
"I thought we were going to the Slytherin common room," said Hermione, puzzled.  
"Yeah, but we need the snow first," said Sirius, getting out from under the cloak.  
  
He conjured some buckets and started shoveling snow into it with his bare hands.  
  
"Well, come on, guys!" he said impatiently. "I'm not doing this alone!"  
  
"All right," James grumbled. "Don't wake everybody in the castle up. I almost wish I had stayed with Lily."  
  
Remus emerged from the cloak too. Hermione made to do the same, but he stopped her saying:  
  
"It's okay, I'll do your share, Rosemary," he offered. "Just keep the cloak dry, and keep a look out."  
  
Hermione did as he requested, wrapping the cloak around her shoulders and rubbing her arms, trying to keep warm.  
  
Soon, the boys had enough buckets of snow filled for the entire Slytherin House. Sirius placed Everlasting Charms on them and levitated them through the doors that James and Remus held open for him. Once inside, they all got back under the cloak.  
  
"Really inconscpicuous," said Hermione sarcastically to Sirius.  
  
"It really is," he said, unflustered. "If anyone sees them floating around, they won't see us. They'll just think some student charmed them to float around the corridors. You've got a lot to learn about troublemaking, darling."  
  
Hermione felt herself blush as he called her 'darling'. No one had ever called her that (save her mother and father), and no one ever said it like that before.  
  
They reached the entrance to the Slytherin common room in due time, and Sirius whispered, "Pureblood."  
  
"Somethings never change," thought Hermione.  
  
They slipped in noiselessly. It was exactly how Ron and Harry had described it to her in their second year. Sirius set down the buckets of snow on a green plush rug in the middle of the common room. They threw off the cloak, and took up two buckets each.  
  
"Now, I think we should only put the snow over the Slytherins who deserve it," said Remus.  
  
"Right," agreed Sirius. "That means...all of them!"  
  
They followed him to a dormitory room on the same level. Apparently, Slytherin House was only one level, sprawling across one of the dungeon floors of Hogwarts. They stopped in front of a door labeled 'Seventh Years'.  
  
"Okay, that means Bellatrix, Malfoy"- Hermione gave a start at the name. "Rosier, Wilkes, Lestrange, Avery, Crabbe, Goyle, and of course, Snivellus."  
  
(A/N: I don't know how old Bella and Lucius Malfoy are, so let's just pretend they were all in the same year. I got all the other names from GoF p 531.)  
  
"Snivellus?" asked Hermione perplexedly.  
  
"Snape," explained James.  
  
"Now, remember, you've got to put the spell on it so that it'll turn over on them when they wake up," reminded Remus.  
  
"We're going in," said Sirius melodramatically.  
  
He opened the door. All of the Slytherins were in deep sleep, each in four poster beds with green canopy. Sirius set up the first one, and the two boys mimicked his actions. Without a wand, Hermione was not able to set anything up, so she held the post of lookout again. She felt no remorse or misgivings aiding them. Every one of these seventh years would become Death Eaters, and even if Snape was no longer one, he still deserved it.  
  
"Yes!" whispered Sirius gleefully, and the three boys retreated to Hermione's side to survey their work.  
  
"Well done," commented Hermione critically.  
  
"We're not done yet, my dear," said Sirius, rubbing his hands together. "We've still got a couple of buckets out there waiting!"  
  
"Sirius," said Remus gravely. "I think the seventh years should be enough."  
  
"What are you talking about, Moony?" asked Sirius, taking up the remaining buckets. "There are a few sixth years, two fifth years and one fourth year who sassed me the other day."  
  
"Sirius, do we have to do the fourth and fifth years?" asked James unsurely. "I mean, they're kinda young..." He trailed off, knowing it was useless to argue with Sirius when he was determined to do something.  
  
Sirius and James fixed the buckets for the students Sirius listed, but Remus and Hermione stayed outside the dormitory doors, refusing to take part in it. Remus looked on disapprovingly, leaning on the door frame, arms crossed, and a frown on his face, watching Sirius and James. Hermione studied him. He almost looked the same as the present-day Remus Lupin except his face was much smoother and his light brown hair was unmarred by grey hairs.  
  
"Done!" announced Sirius.   
  
"Good, let's get the hell out of here," said James. "If we're lucky, Lily will still be up."  
  
"You mean, if you're lucky," taunted Sirius.  
  
They were in the common room again. They all looked around, frowning. They knew they were missing something, they just couldn't place what.  
  
Meow.  
  
Their heads snapped in the direction of the sound. Near the entrance of the common room was Mrs. Norris, the Invisibility Cloak clamped in her mouth.  
  
James and Sirius lunged for the cat, but she was already out the door. Remus jumped over his two fallen friends and raced after the cat. Sirius and James scrambled to their feet. Hermione glanced around the common room to make sure they had left no telltale evidence of their presense before slipping out.  
  
Remus was hot on Mrs. Norris's tale. He chased her all the way up to the ground floor of Hogwarts, eyes only on one thing: that damn cat. He was so intent on his target that he didn't see the figure waiting in the entrance hall. The cat stopped short at the feet of the figure, and Remus froze. Sirius and James ran into him.  
  
"You're out-of-bounds!" declared Argus Filch, bending down and taking up his faithful cat. "You'll be hanging on my wall by chains tomorrow night!" he said gleefully.  
  
"I don't think that will be necessary," came a crisp, cool voice from behind them.  
  
They turned around to see Hermione, drawn to her fullest height, walking as dignifiedly as she could in pyjamas. She had on her 'Head Girl expression' as Harry and Ron had dubbed it.  
  
"Who are you?" growled Filch.  
  
"I'm the Charms student teacher," said Hermione, walking right up to the caretaker. "I was reprimanding the boys in the -erm- Charms corridor, and your cat came up and stole my cloak. I ordered them to fetch it for me. If you please, sir."  
  
She held out her hand for the Invisibility Cloak. Filch took it from Mrs. Norris, and his the hand holding the Cloak was halfway to her hand when he stopped.  
  
"You're too young to be a student teacher," he objected happily, glad to find something wrong with her explanation. "You're a seventh year!"  
  
"I was homeschooled, and I'm near eighteen. If you want you can take the matter up to Professor Dumbledore."  
  
Grudgingly, Filch thrust the cloak into her arms. "But what's their punishment, Miss?" he asked, adapting a greasy demeanor. "Being out-of-bounds for the tenth time requires at least being hung from the ceiling by the thumbs-"  
  
"I think twenty points from Gryffindor should be adequate," she said, smiling teasingly at them.  
  
"Twenty points!" protested Sirius.  
  
"Twenty points each!" she added wickedly.  
  
"Points are good enough, Miss," said Filch. "But being out-of-bounds requires some kind of physical punishment."  
  
"Oh, all right, Mr. Filch!" said Hermione exasperatedly. "They can clean the entrance hall without magic tomorrow night at ten. Satisfied. Now, I think all of us should be in bed!"  
  
She stalked up the marble staircase, James, Sirius, andÊRemus silent behind her. Filch watched them through narrowed eyes for a few minutes before going off. Once they were surely out of hearing, the three boys burst into sound.  
  
"Twenty points each! That's like sixty points!" objected Sirius.  
  
"That is sixty points," she corrected.  
  
"Clean the entrance hall?" asked Remus. "Isn't that a bit...harsh?"  
  
"Compared to being hung from the ceiling by the thumbs, it seems quite the opposite of harsh," she said.  
  
"Without magic?" continued James. "I can't do anything without magic!"  
  
"Then, you'll just have to learn." She stopped in front of the Head Girl's Dormitory. "I'll see you all tomorrow, then." She handed James the Invisibility cloack before disappearing into Lily's Room. Grumbling, the three went off to the Head Boy's dormitory that was situated at the end of the corridor. Remus and Sirius often crashed there to hang out with James.  
  
Hermione opened the door again. "Oh, I forgot," she called after them. "Thirty points to Gryffndor each for giving me such a grand time and you can use magic tomorrow. I trust you won't be angry at me anymore?"  
  
Not waiting for an answer, she closed the door again. James, Sirius, and Remus smiled.  
  
"I knew she'd warm up to us," said James surely. "Everyone does."  
  
"She's something," said Sirius.  
  
"She certainly is," agreed Remus.  
  
~~~~~  
  
MistyKitty - I know it isn't a very original plotline, but I thought I would give it a try and see what I could make of it. I do hope you'll keep reading this fic of mine, and thanks for the compliments!  
  
Dani Lupin and Joss Malfoy - Thanks for reading. You're one of my favorite authors! Please keep up the Appanesia Curse!  
  
Atiannala - Sorry about the mistake. You were right. Madam Pomfrey would have been the school nurse at the time. It completely slipped my mind, and if you read back, I did change it. Yes, I love Remus myself and I also love your story 'Moonlight!' Thanks!  
  
RubyMalfoy - There is a reason her name is Rosemary, but you'll have to waif for chapter 8 or 9, not sure which, to find out!  
  
Cara-Lupin-05- Thanks for your enthusiasm. I hope you liked Chapter 4! 


	5. Revelations

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 5: Revelations  
  
"You sound like you had the time of your lives," whined Peter over breakfast that morning.   
  
"We sure did," agreed Sirius.  
  
"You could've come with us," said James.  
  
"Well, I am glad I didn't. I don't want to be cleaning the entrance hall."  
  
The four Marauders and Lily were sitting in the middle of the Gryffindor House Table, a spot that seemed reserved just for them. They waved at Hermione, who was sitting at the staff table, as she was introduced to the school that morning. Somehow, the school had found out that she had taken sixty points from Gryffindor and given three students detention just for being out-of-bounds, and everyone else was convinced that she was strict.  
  
"THIS WAS POTTER, LUPIN, PETTIGREW, AND BLACK'S DOING!" roared someone in the entrance hall.  
  
The doors of the Great Hall banged open. Snape, accompanied by a gang of Slytherins, marched into the Hall, still in pyjamas. Some of them had snow on the tops of their head and shoulders. They marched to where Lily and the Marauders were sitting.  
  
"THIS IS YOUR DOING!" thundered Malfoy. "ADMIT IT!"  
  
James, Sirius, and Remus put on looks of innocence and puzzlement that would have fooled Hermione had she not known the truth. Pettigrew looked completely lost, but Lily kept her face completely blank.  
  
"I don't know what you're talking about," said Sirius calmly. "Now, if you let me go back to my eggs..."  
  
He turned away from the gang of Slytherins, flashing a smile at a group of fifth year Hufflepuff girls, all of whom, Hermione noticed, had been watching his every move all morning.  
  
"Don't turn your back on me, Sirius!" screeched Bellatrix. Hermione felt her anger boil. She would love to hex Bellatrix right now. "You're the only one with the smarts to do this!"  
  
She threw a fistful of snow into Remus's porridge. He glanced at it, unperturbed.   
  
"Bellatrix, we have no clue as to what you're talking about," said Remus. "Would you care to explain?"  
  
"Explain?" growled a boy. He looked exactly like Gregory Goyle. "Would you care to explain why we woke up and got a face full of snow?"  
  
"Maybe you fell asleep again outside, Goyle," said James coolly. The whole Great Hall erupted with laughter.  
  
"Enough!" said Professor McGonagall sweeping down. "Go put your uniforms on," she commanded the Slytherins. She turned to the Marauders. "And I will get to the bottom of this," she promised.  
  
~~~~~  
  
Hermione's first day as a student teacher passed smoothly. No one dared trifle with her, but she did get the impression that the seventh year Slytherins, who were the students for the last Charms class, were eyeing her suspciously...even menacingly. Every time she looked up at them, they were looking at her instead of listening to Professor Flitwick.  
  
A few minutes to the end of class, a third year Hufflepuff burst into the room.  
  
"Professor Flitwick! Someone put a levitation spell on all the crystal balls in the Divination Tower!"  
  
"Don't worry, Emerick, I'm on my way!" squeaked Professor Flitwick. He turned to Hermione. "Just keep them working until the bell rings, then you can dismiss them," he instructed, before running off after Emerick.  
  
As soon as he was out the door, Hermione turned to the Slytherins. They were all looking at her, grinning evilly.  
  
"Well, you heard what Professor Flitwick said," she said tartly. "On with your work."  
  
"I never took instructions from a Mudblood, and I'm not about to start now," said Lucius Malfoy standing up. His fellow Slytherins nodded.  
  
"Ten points from Slytherin for uttering such a foul word during class, and a further ten points for directing that word towards your superior."  
  
"Since when was a Mudblood ever our superior?" demanded Bellatrix.  
  
"Hold your tongue, Miss Black, or it will be further points from Slytherin!" threatened Hermione.  
  
"Points are nothing compared to the continuing degration of this school!" spat Snape. "Imagine being taught by a Mudblood!"  
  
"You don't have to imagine it, you are being taught by a Muggle-born, Mr. Snape," said Hermione coldly. "Continue with your work."  
  
"No!" yelled the whole class.  
  
"Detention!" she said. "And two day's worth detention for those who spoke out of turn to say uncouth words."  
  
"You did not just give us detention," growled Lestrange.  
  
"I assure you, I did."  
  
"Watch out!" cried a voice.  
  
Instantaneously, the whole class shot an arraignment of hexes towards Hermione. Before they had so much left the caster's wand, however, a Shield Charm appeared out of nowhere and repelled the spells (A/N: No rhyme intended!). The hexes and jinxes bounced off the shield and rebounded all over the classroom, making bookcases fall, desks overturn, and windows shatter. The racket was enough to bring the whole school running.  
  
"Outrageous behavior!" shrieked Professor McGonagall, who took in the scene and figured out what had happened immediately. "Intentional attack on a superior! Twenty points from Slytherin each and a month's worth of detention for all. Now get out of here before it becomes more."  
  
McGonagall pointed them out the door. The Slytherins gathered up their things and filed out of the door, looking daggers at Hermione.  
  
"Go about your business," commanded McGonagall to the crowd that had gathered in the Charms corridor.  
  
Hermione stared at the Shield Charm. The setting sun coming through the window shone upon it. She reached out to touch it, but it vanished.  
  
"Are you planning on staring there all night, or can we go down to supper?" a voice interrupted her train of thoughts.  
  
She looked up just in time to see Sirius and Remus taking out the cloak.  
  
"It was you who yelled 'watch out' and cast the charm, wasn't it?" she asked.  
  
"That was Moony, here," said Sirius. "But I could have done it too."  
  
"Why are you here anyway?" she asked as she gathered her things. "And where are James, Lily, and Peter?"  
  
"Well, we came to check on you," explained Remus. "When we saw Professor Flitwick run by during Transfiguration we knew you'd be alone with the Slytherins and we thought they might make trouble."  
  
"That was sweet of you. Thanks," she said, smiling.  
  
"Sweets for the sweet, honey," said Sirius, flashing her a smile.  
  
Remus rolled his eyes, but he couldn't help wishing he had thought of something to say like that.  
  
She heaved her bag onto her shoulder and gathered a stack of books that wouldn't fit into her bag into her arms.   
  
"Let me carry that for you," said Remus and Sirius in unison.  
  
Hermione thought nothing of it. She handed her books to Sirius, and her bag to Remus. She led the way to the Great Hall.  
  
"You can just bring it to the Great Hall," she told them. "You don't have to bring it all the way up to the dormitory."  
  
"Nonsense, m'lady," said Sirius suavely. "We'll take it up for you."  
  
Turning a deaf ear towards her objections, they started up the marble staircase. As soon as the doors of the Great Hall closed behind her, they broke into conversation.  
  
"What do you think you're playing at?" demanded Sirius. "I thought I told you that I'd staked Rosemary as my fourteenth."  
  
"Girls don't like to be thought or talked of as property," said Remus seriously.  
  
"It's all right as long as they don't hear it," said Sirius impatiently. "Rosemary's mine, got it?"  
  
"I'm not trying to steal her from you, if that what you think," said Remus. "But she doesn't belong to you, does she?"  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?"  
  
"You can woo her all you want, Sirius, but I have a feeling Rosemary's not the same as all the girls you've gone out with before."  
  
"Exactly," said Sirius. "And I love a challenge, don't you?"  
  
"If you're just using her so you won't be stuck at unlucky thirteen-"  
  
"No, I'm not using her. She's fun to be around. Sorry for thinking you were trying to impress Rosemary yourself." He entered Lily's room and put down Hermione's things. "Imagine that! I forgot you didn't want to get romantically involved with anyone. You're not going to hurt a girl just because you're a werewolf. I think it's time you changed that motto, mate. "  
  
"I already have," thought Remus, his hand lingering on Hermione's bag.  
  
~~~~~  
  
Elbereth94 -She blurted it out cause she seemed so at ease and she was trying hard to become their friend. She's been lonely, you know. Also, they had to know she knew early on because of time constraints. If you don't know what I'm talking about now, you will in a few chapters. I also used to ignore time-turner fics too, but you should really read them. There's usually some sweet stuff in there!  
  
Atiannala - Sorry about all the mistakes. You're really good at catching them! I try to keep my story as mistake-free as possible, but sometimes I type so fast or I have an inspiration that I have to type right away, that I get kind of careless.  
  
shattered-destiny 1 - Alright, here it is! Don't hex me! *laughs* I'm so glad you read and reviewed! You're one of my favorite authors! Your stories are so heartrending, they make me cry.  
  
RubyMalfy - She's a student teacher, so she can take away points. Sorry, if I didn't make that clear. 


	6. Clues and Conclusions

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 6: Clues and Conclusions  
  
After supper, they all went to the Head Girl's room. After two hours of idle conversation and watching Sirius's antics, Lily immersed herself in her Arithmancy homework and Hermione had to grade first year Charms essays. Peter excused himself as well, having a Potions essay to finish.  
  
"What should we do?" asked Sirius as they left the room. "I'm bored."   
  
"As much as I would love to duel Snivellus, I don't think we should provoke the Slytherins anymore," said James. "They still think we fixed up the snow."  
  
"Let's go to the library," suggested Remus.  
  
"How simply exhillarating!" said Sirius, his voice dripping with sarcasm.  
  
"Oh, come on," said Remus, leading the way to the library. "If you learned how to read, the library would be more fun."  
  
"Ha ha," said Sirius, following all the same.  
  
"Oh, but he can read the curves on a woman," said James, "and the - ow!"  
  
Sirius pushed James into the wall to shut him up.  
  
"And here I was trying to give you a compliment," grumbled James, rubbing his shoulder.  
  
"Oh, then thank you."  
  
Remus wandered around the library, instantly at home. Sirius and James, resigned to let Remus read all he wanted, amused themselves by hiding behind bookcases and making books zoom around Madam Pince's head and out of other students hands.  
  
Remus thoughtfully stroked his chin. He was looking at books on Transfiguration, but his thoughts kept on gonig back to Rosemary. She interested him, her past did anyway. She wouldn't tell them anything about her past. And how did she know about their secret?  
  
"Whatcha thinking about, Moony?" asked James, coming over to him. He and Sirius had tired of their game and Sirius was now pretending to look at a row of books to attract the attention of a study group of girls nearby.  
  
"Rosemary," said Remus.  
  
James grinned. "Oh, I see."  
  
"No, not like that," said Remus. "I've got a feeling she's got a big secret or something."  
  
James's demeanor turned serious. "What?"  
  
"It's like this: how did she know our secret? I mean, we have been careless a few times, but she only came her today. How could she know?"  
  
"I was wondering about that the other day, but I somehow trust her if that's what you're leading to."  
  
"No, I trust her too. You can't help but trust her, but remember that conversation we had in Lily's room? She said she knew all about us. How?"  
  
"I don't know."  
  
"Who are you talking about?" asked Sirius, making his way over to them, flashing smiles and winking at the girls over his shoulder. He had a book tucked under his arm.  
  
"Rosemary," said James. "Does she give you weird feeling?"  
  
Sirius thought for a moment. "Yeah, she does. Like...like I know her already. Or," he paused. "I know this may sound silly, but I feel sometimes like I will know her."  
  
"Exactly," said Remus.  
  
"Not exactly for me," pondered James. "But I just trust her, for some weird reason."  
  
"Well, we've got a date, more a detention, with her in fifteen minutes," said Sirius. "Let's get out of here. The sight of so many books is making me sick."  
  
They walked out of the library and waited in the entrance hall.  
  
"Oh, I forgot to check this out," said Sirius, remembering the book he held.  
  
"Were you going to?" asked James. "Judgement day has come! Sirius Black was going to check out a book from the library!"  
  
"Shut up," said Sirius, hitting James across the stomach with the book. James took it up.  
  
"Let's see what's in here," he said, holding up the title so it could be read by torchlight. "The Mysteries and Methods of Time Travel. I didn't know you were interested in time travel, Padfoot."  
  
"I wasn't. It happened to be the book by the girls. But that's an idea: time-travel. Definitely something we could try. Give it here." James handed him the book and he started reading aloud:  
  
"Time travel can be exceptionally complex and dangerous. The most common method of time travel is using a time-turner, which resembles an hourglass on a chain. When turned over once to the left, the wearer of the chain will be transported back in time one hour. The number of turns equals the number of hours gone back in time. When turned over once to the right, the wearer will be transported forward in time on hour. The time-turner can only transport people backwards in time or to the present. The wearer of the time-turner can never go into the future, and cannot use different turners to go back in time and go forward.  
  
"Whenever one is changing time, it is imperative that one never sees one's self. The past or future of the individual would be in jeopardy. It is also advisable not to change the future. The results could be disastrous.   
  
"Using a time-turner has been strictly regulated by the Ministry. All sorts of time travel travel, including spells, should not be trifled with for amusement.  
  
"Well, that sounds dangerous. I'd rather not try it," said Sirius, flipping through the pages.  
  
James and Remus were staring at the book, then they looked at each other, knowing they had both come to the same conclusion.  
  
"Peter stepped on it..." said Remus.  
  
"That's how she knows about us," said James.  
  
Sirius frowned. "What are you talking about?"  
  
A group of sixth years were walking down the staircase, talking loudly. James and Remus pulled Sirius into a corner right by the Great Hall.  
  
"I know it will sound outrageous, but we think Rosemary is from the future," whispered James.  
  
"Oh, stop joking, James," drawled Sirius.  
  
"No, listen, Sirius," said Remus. "Remember when we first met her? She was right here in the entrance hall. Peter stepped on some kind of necklace of hers. There was sand on the floor. Sand. An hourglass has sand in it. Peter stepped on it, and she fainted."  
  
"Come off it," said Sirius. "What's that got to do with it?"  
  
"Well, her way back to the future was broken, wasn't it? She was stuck in the past. Anyone would faint," said James.  
  
"What time do you think she could come from?" asked Sirius. "I mean, she has to come from the future, obviously. But how many months?"  
  
"We could be talking years," said Remus, staring at the floor. Something in the corner caught his eye. It looked like a badge. He was about to pick it up as James was suggesting:  
  
"Why don't we just ask Rosemary?"  
  
"Ask me what?" said a bright voice.  
  
They all turned to see Hermione. "Nothing," they said in unison.  
  
She considered them for a moment before letting it go.  
  
"Well, it's ten o'clock. This entrance hall has to be gleaming by midnight. You are allowed to use magic, like I said." She had a knowing smile on her face that made them think there was a catch to it.  
  
"Fine. Scourgify!" cried James.  
  
Pink suds appeared all over the hall, on everything including themselves.  
  
"Now what?" demanded Sirius.  
  
"Er, I don't know," replied James truthfully.  
  
"This hall has to be shining without suds, boys," said Hermione playfully. "Ah, Mr. Filch. Just in time too!"  
  
Filch appeared with three mops and buckets. He set them down in the middle of the hall.  
  
"Enjoy yourselves," he said before leaving.  
  
"Easy," said Sirius. "We'll just enchant the mops..."  
  
He tried, but nothing happened.  
  
"I should tell you that Mr. Filch had Unbewitchment Charms placed on his mops to stop students from placing spells on them," said Hermione, smiling openly now.  
  
"Are you saying that we have to do it by hand?" asked Remus.  
  
She nodded.  
  
"You said we could use magic!" said James.  
  
"Use magic if you want...if you can." she answered.  
  
James tried to make the soap suds vanish, but nothing happened. Hermione stifled a giggle. She knew he couldn't use a Vanishing Spell as it was still in the process of being invented.  
  
"Come on, guys," said Remus, resignedly grabbing a mop. "The sooner this is done, the better."  
  
Hermione sat down on the last step of the marble staircase to oversee them. Grumbling, Sirius and James also grabbed mops. They mopped the floor for a good half hour, before they faced another problem.  
  
"Are we supposed to haul water too?" asked James, peering into the empty buckets.  
  
"No," she said. "You can fill it up with water from your wand." She crossed to where the buckets were. The floor being soapy, she almost slipped, but Remus steadied her.  
  
"There are some times where being a werewolf become an asset, not an ailment," he thought. "At least my reflexes are better than Sirius's."  
  
"Thanks," she said, smiling at him.  
  
A yell made them look up. Sirius was sliding down the hall on his behind. He bowled over both of them.  
  
"Sorry!" he called, as he continued to slide, being stopped only when he hit a wall.   
  
Hermione sat up, trying to look disapproving at Sirius, and failing completely.  
  
"Rosemary," laughed Remus. "You got some soap on your hair."  
  
"Where?"  
  
"Come here." He reached over and took out the suds that were on her hair right by her face. His hand lingered on her face. They stared into one another's eyes and unconsciously began to inch closer.   
  
"Padfoot! Stop sliding!" yelled James, as he was bowled over by Sirius.  
  
The moved apart and looked rather awkward and red. She stood up and went to the buckets to fill them up with water when she remembered she didn't have a wand.  
  
"Here," murmured Remus. He handed her his wand, their fingers tingling when their fingers touched.  
  
"Thanks," she said softly, blushing prettily.  
  
As she was bent over, Sirius, who had finally gotten up off the floor, looked at her. His eyes opened wide.  
  
"Stop checking her out, Padfoot," hissed James.  
  
"I'm not! Listen." He beckoned them over, and James and Remus moved towards him. He pointed to the waistband of her jeans. Her shirt was covering part of the tag on it (A/N: I'm talking about that piece of leather sewed onto the back that has the brand of the jeans), but a small part was showing. From what they could see, they read: est. 1992.  
  
"1992," whispered Remus.  
  
(A/N: They're far way enough to whisper without being heard by her, and the water pouring covers the sound a little.)  
  
"She's really from the future," said James awestruck.  
  
"Well, wait a moment," said Sirius. "Maybe it says 1892. Maybe the eight got worn out to look like a nine."  
  
"That is a possibility," said James. "But it sure looks like a nine to me."  
  
"What are you guys talking about?" she asked, hands on her hips.  
  
"Nothing," they answered in unison.  
  
"I know it's somthing, but you've got water now to wash up this hall," she said, frowning.  
  
They dipped the mops into the bucket and started washing the suds away on the floor.  
  
"Do you think we should ask her?" asked James out of the corner of his mouth.  
  
"What if she's not supposed to tell us?" muttered Remus. "I think she would have told us if she could."  
  
"Oh, you know you want to find out just as much as we do," said Sirius. "Now, let's break before she sees we're talking."  
  
They went to opposite corners of the room. Remus went to the corner where Hermione had fainted into his arms. He glanced at her over his shoulder. Hermione was reading the time travel book Sirius had brought from the library. She was frowning, and was looking at them thoughtfully.  
  
Something shiny caught his eye, and he saw it was that badge-looking thing again. He bent over to pick it up. It looked exactly like Lily's Head Girl badge, except for a nick in the middle. He turned it over thoughtfully. On the back, there was an engraving.  
  
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Head Girl 1997-1998 Gryffindor  
  
The engraved words kept getting smaller and smaller. He held it up to the torch light to read the last words which he knew was the name of the person because James and Lily's badges were engraved in the same way. The torchlight gleamed on it, and he angled it just the right way to read the words.  
  
~~~~~  
  
Thanks for the reviews! 


	7. Mutual Feelings?

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 7: Mutual Feelings?  
  
"What's that?" asked Hermione sharply before he could read on. "Accio!"  
  
The badge zoomed out of his hand and into hers. James and Sirius looked at her in puzzlement. She glanced at the badge and looked at Remus, petrified.  
  
"Rosemary," he said quietly.  
  
"What did you say?"  
  
"Rosemary," he said again.  
  
She sighed raggedly, and sank down on the steps, a shaking hand over her eyes.  
  
"Rosemary," he repeated, going over to her. "Are you okay?"  
  
"Just great,' she said faintly.  
  
Remus glanced at James and Sirius who had approached her also. He raised his eyebrows and inclined his head towards Rosemary in askance. James and Sirius nodded.  
  
"We know about you," said James, kneeling in front of her.  
  
Hermione paled even more, if that was possible.  
  
"What do you know?" she whispered.  
  
"You're from the future," said Sirius.  
  
"How did you find out?"  
  
"The chain held a time-turner, didn't it?" said Remus. She nodded. "You said you knew about us. You give us this feeling like we're going to know you. We just assumed.... Are we right?"  
  
She nodded silently, but her hand still held fast to the Head Girl badge.  
  
"What time are you from?' asked James.  
  
"It was July 2nd, 1998 when I got transported. I was twirling the chain of the time-turner, and I accidently let go," she explained.  
  
"So you're from twenty years into the future," said Sirius. She nodded. "Bloody hell," he swore.  
  
"You're Head Girl," said Remus, nodding to the badge she held in her hand.  
  
"Was Head Girl," she corrected. "Or really, I'm going to Head Girl. I don't know. It's so hard to speak in correct tense when time-traveling."  
  
"You do a lot?" asked James.  
  
"I did it in my third year to accomodate all my classes."  
  
"So, you're going to know us?" said Sirius excitedly. "What's going to happen to us?"  
  
Suddenly, her expression changed; she looked suddenly stern, though her eyes looked sad. She stood up abruptly. "Please don't ask me such things," she pleaded. "With what I tell you, I could change the future, and I can't do that. The outcome could be disastrous. Promise me you won't ask me to tell you anything, and you won't tell anyone else?"  
  
Remus and Sirius assented readily, though Sirius took a second to think about the asking about the future part. James hesitated.  
  
"Can I tell Lily?" he asked.  
  
Hermione thought for a moment, then nodded.  
  
"What about Peter?" asked Sirius.  
  
Her expression grew cloudy."I...I think not," she finally said.  
  
"Why -?" but Sirius caught himself and didn't finish the question.  
  
"Well, it's about 11:30, and we have to finish by midnight," said James.  
  
"Nonsense," said Hermione. She took up Remus's wand. "Evanesco!"  
  
The suds disappeared, and the hall was left sparkling clean.  
  
"Just leave the mops and buckets in the corner," she said. "Filch will pick it up tomorrow."  
  
They did as she said, and went up the marble staircase. Albus Dumbledore was waiting at the top of the stairs.  
  
"Please go on to your dormitories (sp?), boys," he said gravely. "I must have a chat with Miss Gardener."  
  
They nodded, looking at Hermione pityingly. She followed Dumbledore to his office.  
  
"Miss Granger, they know?"  
  
She nodded, looking down at her knees.  
  
"But they do now know what will happen in the future?"  
  
She shook her head, still looking down.  
  
"Then, there's no need to be so glum, Miss Granger! Nothing has been changed as far as my knowledge goes."  
  
Hermione looked up, a small smile on her face.  
  
"As long as no one but Misters Lupin, Black, and Potter and Miss Evans know, and you do not divulge any information, every thing will turn out all right, I think. One cannot undoubtedly know in such situations."  
  
"Professor, could you keep my Head Girl's badge?" she requested. "My name's on it, and I wouldn't want anyone to accidently find it."  
  
"Of course, of course," he said, taking the badge from her. "And I have something to give to you."  
  
He took out a slender box, about a foot long. He took of the lid, and nestled in a wad of cotton was her wand, very brand new.  
  
"I took the liberty of visiting Mr. Ollivander. This is your wand. Well, it's going to be your wand."  
  
"Thank you," she said, taking up her wand. "But how did you know it was mine?"  
  
"Eleven and three-quarters inches, cedar, pliable, with a phoenix feather and unicorn core. Rather powerful."  
  
Hermione nodded.  
  
"And I am still researching ways to help you. I think you'll be back to the future in no time at all, if you don't mind the saying."  
  
Hermione laughed.  
  
"Do you know of anyway to get back to your time except by time-turner?"  
  
Hermione thought back to everything she had been told on time travel by Professor McGonagall when she first got the time-turner. She glanced down at her hands and was surprised to see that she still held the book on time travel. She was sure the answer would be in here, but just as she was about to open the book, she remembered how that little moment she and Remus had after he had taken the soap out of her hair...  
  
"No, sir," she answered. 


	8. A Valentine's Day Dance Announced

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 8: A Valentine's Day Dance Announced  
  
After breakfast the next morning, the school was buzzing with news. Professor Dumbledore had announced that there was going to be a Valentine's Day dance. Hermione, sitting up at the high table, remembered the Valentine's Dance Dumbledore had set up during her seventh year.  
  
~~~~~Flashback~~~~~  
  
It was late at night in the common room. She, Harry, and Ron were all alone. It was well past midnight. Ron was on the floor writing an essay, though he looked a little distracted. Harry was sitting at a table, writing an essay as well. She was curled up in an armchair, reading an Arithmancy book.   
  
She was so immersed in her reading that she did not notice that Harry and Ron were engaged in a silent conversation.  
  
"Ask her," mouthed Harry to Ron.  
  
Ron shook his head violently.  
  
"Ask her," repeated Harry.  
  
Again, Ron shook his head.  
  
"Why not?" mouthed Harry.  
  
Ron shrugged before turning back to his essay, but he wasn't writing anything down. Harry let out a sigh. Suddenly, a new battle plan formed in his mind.  
  
"This dance is something new, huh?" he asked loudly. Hermione and Ron looked up, the latter glaring at his best friend.  
  
"What do you mean?" asked Hermione.  
  
"There's never been a Valentine's Day Dance before."  
  
"Well, there was one once, exactly twenty years ago ," said Hermione. "I read about it in Hogwarts: A History."  
  
"Right," said Harry. "Er, who do you want to go with, Hermione?" He kept on talking without waiting for an answer. "Because I was thinking of asking Ginny."  
  
"Oh, that's wonderful-" Hermione started but was cut off by Ron.  
  
"WHAT?" he bellowed, jumping to his feet. "You want to go with my sister!"  
  
"Yes," said Harry conversationally. "Who do you want to go with?"  
  
"Hermione, but that's not important! What's important is -" He stopped short, realizing what he just said. He turned towards Hermione, blushing profusely.  
  
~~~~~End of Flashback~~~~~  
  
She had went with him to the dance, but nothing became of it. Either Ron was too shy to ask her out, or he didn't want to ruin their friendship, he never made a move to take their relationship to the next level. But Hermione was glad he hadn't. She was sure she wouldn't know what to say if he had asked her. If she had refused, that might have put a strain on their friendship. If she accepted then broke up with him later on, it definitely would have strained their friendship. So that had been the end of things. No, not the very end, she thought dryly, thinking of why she had taken out the time-turner in the first place.  
  
"I wonder what they see in me," she mused.  
  
"A beautiful, admirable, and bewitching young lady," answered Sirius.  
  
Her eyes came back to focus and she saw that Sirius and Remus were standing right in front of her.  
  
"Not to mention clever, witty, and enchanting," added Remus.  
  
Sirius glanced over at his best friend, but Remus was looking at Hermione.  
  
"Stop it, I'm blushing," she said dryly, firmly convinced they didn't mean what they say. "Shouldn't you be getting ready for class?"  
  
"As should you," pointed out Sirius.  
  
"We've come to escort you to class," explained Remus.  
  
"I don't need an entourage to go to the Charms classroom," she said dismissively, taking up her things.  
  
"You'll be singing different tune when the Slytherin seventh years waylay you somewhere along the way," said Sirius confidently.  
  
"I can defend myself now," she said, taking out her wand. "Dumbledore gave it to yesterday."  
  
"Oh, what happened? Did he get angry at you?" asked Remus.  
  
"No, and everything will be all right as long as you don't find out anything else, and no one else finds out about me," she said firmly. "Now, I've got to learn how to teach."  
  
She smiled at them and walked briskly out of the Great Hall. Her wand was hidden up her sleeve, as she had no trouble believing that the Slytherins could be lying in wait for her. So, on her guard, she set off for the Charms corridor.  
  
As she passed a crowded corridor, she overheard students asking: "Will you go to the dance with me?"  
  
She wished Ron had asked her in such a way, and that Harry hadn't needed to prod him.  
  
It took her a moment to realize that the questions were being directed toward her. A sixth-year boy actually blocked her path.  
  
"Miss Gardner, will you do me the honor of going to the dance with me?"  
  
She was so stunned that she didn't know what to say. The boy's friends started teasing him silly, luckily for her but not so lucky for the boy.  
  
She hurried away from the corridor. Why were they actually asking her? She was flattered, of course, what girl wouldn't be? But it was quite a new experience for her, being sought after. She turned the corner, beocoming more and more amused of being asked to the dance. Two figures blocked her path.  
  
The first figure found himself with a wand at the throat in the blink of an eye.  
  
"Don't you ever scare me like that again, Sirius Black!" she hissed, red sparks flying out of her wand.  
  
"All right, all right," said Sirius, pushing the tip of her wand away. "Your reflexes are admirable, my dear, as are you."  
  
"Stop trying to flatter me, Sirius," she said. "What are you driving at? A better grade in Charms?"  
  
"Not exactly," muttered Sirius.  
  
She didn't hear him and continued on her way, fully aware that Sirius and Remus were right behind her.  
  
"Don't you have Transfiguration next?" she asked them, not turning around. "That's on the other side of the castle. You'll be late for it."  
  
"Then, we'll be late," said Remus.  
  
She sighed resignedly, but she felt somewhat safer knowing that Sirius and Remus were with her. She turned the last corner into the Charms corridor and stopped in the doorway.  
  
"See? No trouble at all, though thanks for your consideration and concern. Now, you should really get to Transfiguration."  
  
Sirius and Remus nodded and started walking away. They had just rounded the corner when Sirius abruptly turned and doubled back. Remus stopped short, wondering what Sirius was doing. He looked around the corner to see Sirius standing in front of Rosemary who was still standing in the doorway waiting for the students.  
  
"What is it, Sirius?"  
  
"Would you do me the honor of going to the dance with me?"  
  
Remus turned on his heel and walked away angrily, yet sadly, knowing what Rosemary's answer would be. 


	9. At the Top of the Astronomy Tower

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 9: At the Top of the Astronomy Tower  
  
It was time for supper, and Remus knew he should be down at the Great Hall, eating and talking with his friends, but he didn't want to. He didn't want to feel the warmth of the Great Hall. He didn't want to hear Sirius boasting that he was going to be escorting Rosemary to the Valentine's Day dance. He didn't want to see Rosemary up at the high table, smiling occassionally at Sirius and looking like an angel sent from heaven.   
  
And that was why Remus sat at the top of the Astronomy Tower, looking out across the grounds of Hogwarts. The Tower was windowless, and the wind whipped coldly around him. February was as cold as January this year. He wasn't moving an inch and snowflakes had collected on the top of his head and his shoulders. But whatever the temperature was, it was nothing compared to what he felt inside.  
  
Sirius had beat him...Sirius beat him in many things. Sirius was better at Quidditch. Sirius had the charm that girls looked for. Sirius was smart as hell without even trying. Well, no, thought Remus fairly. I get better grades than him. But only by a little, he couldn't help adding. So, I have the grades and he has the girls.  
  
Of course, he hadn't been much interested in girls. He always distanced himself from them, feeling awkward or annoyed around them. Anyway, he always knew that no girl would want a werewolf for a boyfriend.  
  
His morbid thoughts were cut off by the sound of someone coming up the stairs. He caught her scent before she appeared.  
  
"Rosemary," he said, without turning around.  
  
"You should be down at supper," she said casually.  
  
"As should you," he said shortly, still not looking at her.  
  
"I should be down at supper, but I came looking for you instead," she said, walking around him and placing herself in his line of vision.  
  
He had no choice but to look at her. "Why would you do that?"  
  
"Because everyone was getting worried about you. They didn't know where to look."  
  
"Did they even try?" he said bitterly.  
  
"Of course they did!" she said. "They were all over the castle until McGonagall accused them of plotting another trick. They had to go to the Great Hall before she put them in detention."  
  
"That wouldn't be anything new," he muttered. "But how did you know I was here?"  
  
"It was my favorite place to think as well," she told him. "But I usually didn't pick the coldest day of the year to think."  
  
"Is it cold?" he asked absent-mindedly. "I'm fine, Rosemary."  
  
"No, you're not," she said adamantly. "From the looks of you, you've been out here for nearly half an hour. You'll catch a cold."  
  
"Werewolves are immune to colds and most common sicknesses."  
  
"Well, I'm not, but I'm staying here with you until you come down." She crossed her arms stubbornly.  
  
"Go down and be with Sirius, Rosemary, before you catch your death of cold."  
  
She cocked an eyebrow. "Be with Sirius?"  
  
"You're going with him to the Valentine's Day Dance."  
  
"No, I'm not," she frowned, wondering why he had assumed this.  
  
"He asked you."  
  
"Yes, but I declined."  
  
Remus was greatly taken aback. "You what?  
  
"I refused."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Just because Sirius Black asked me to the dance doesn't mean I have to go with him."  
  
Remus felt as if the sun had just come out again. "Most girls seem to think so," he said.  
  
"I'm not like most girls. Most girls right now are warm, but I'm here freezing."  
  
Remus looked at her fully for the first time during this whole conversation. she was wearing a short-sleeved dress that ended at the knee.  
  
"Come here, dear," he said, taking off his cloak, not even noticing he had called her 'dear'.  
  
Meow.  
  
They looked down to see Mrs. Norris. She seemed to be looking disdainfully at them.  
  
"We're not doing anything wrong," Hermione said. "So you can just go away."  
  
Mrs. Norris didn't move, but kept staring at them through her lamplike eyes. Hermione made to scare her away by lifting up her foot. A very big mistake.  
  
She slipped on a patch of dry ice. She fell backwards, out through the glassless and ledgeless window of the Astronomy Tower. Faster than can be described, Remus was on the floor, reaching out to grab her. He caught her wrist, but it was slipping out of his grasp. Her eyes widened in horror as her hand slipped free of his hold.   
  
The moment she lost feeling of his hand, her whole life flashed before her eyes. Strangely, though, Remus's figure remained in the middle of everything. The wind rushed She closed her eyes, waiting to hit the ground and, ultimately, death. It never came.  
  
"Accio!" cried Remus.  
  
She zoomed up toward him, eyes still closed, the wind still rushing in her ears. She thought she was still falling, the position of her body changing so that she would fall into the ground face first. She could not bring herself to open her eyes. She hit something very softly.  
  
She opened her eyes softly and noticed she was dangling over the edge of the Astronomy Tower, being hugged tightly by Remus to keep her from falling. She stared into his eyes and she knew.  
  
He backed up a couple of steps and released her. Without his support, she found her legs felt like jelly, and fell on the cold and, thankfully, solid floor, breathing as though she had run a mile.  
  
"Are you all right?" he asked, dropping down next to her.  
  
"Yes," she paused. "I lied," she said.  
  
"What? You're not all right?"  
  
"I'm fine, but I lied to you, Remus," she repeated.  
  
His face fell. "You're going with Sirius?"  
  
"No," she said softly, putting a hand to his cheek. Remus felt his heart skip a beat. "I came looking for you because I was worried about you. I refused Sirius because I don't fancy him like that."  
  
"Then," said Remus breathlessly, "who do you fancy?"  
  
"It runs deeper than fancy. I think it may be love, but I wouldn't know what love feels like."  
  
Remus decided to say and do something rash. "It feels like this."  
  
He leaned in and kissed her. It wasn't passionate and hungry, it was innocent and sweet. She didn't pull away, but kissed him back. They broke apart and stared into each other's eyes.  
  
"Yes, I believe that's what love feels like," she said softly.  
  
Remus smiled and stroked her cheek. "Why me, Rosemary? We only met two days ago."  
  
"No, we met a long time ago, or a long time after for you," she answered.  
  
"I know you in future?"  
  
She nodded.  
  
"But if you come from the year 1998, that would make me thirty-seven. Unless you also go back in age when you time-travel, that would make you seventeen, would it?"  
  
She nodded again. "I'm seventeen. There and now."  
  
"Then, I'm in love with a girl twenty years younger than myself in the future?"  
  
She shook her head sadly. "You're not interested in me that way," she said.   
  
Suddenly, her mind acted up. The present-day Remus could be interested in her now that he had fallen in love with her twenty years ago. She quickly consoled herself in the fact that the present-day Remus couldn't think that Rosemary Gardner was Hermione Granger. Somehow, this thought didn't console her.  
  
"How can I not love you when I know you in the future?" he asked incredulously.  
  
"Let's not think about the future," she said, putting a finger to his lips. "Let's just think about now."  
  
She replaced her finger with her lips and they kissed again. They didn't know how long the kiss lasted. It could have been seconds or minutes. It ended when Hermione had to pull away to sneeze. Remus looked furious at himself.  
  
"Come here, darling," he said, pulling his cloak around her shoulders and putting his arms around her. "We should have gone in ages ago. We can go down to the hospital ward and Madam Pomfrey can make a Pepperup Potion for you."  
  
She smiled at him gratefully, appreciating how thoughtful he was. He smiled back and they kissed briefly again.  
  
"I don't know how or why, but I'm sure I'm in love with you," he said.  
  
"Love is a mystery. It can take minutes or years. It happened to take three days for me to find out that I love you too."  
  
They turned to go down the stairs, and they found themselves face to face Sirius Black. 


	10. So It Begins

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 10: So It Begins  
  
"Sirius..." started Remus, though it was obvious he didn't know what he was going to say next.  
  
"So, Rosemary," said Sirius coldly, with forced calmness. "Is that why you didn't want to go to the ball with me?"  
  
"Sirius-"  
  
"Never mind, I don't want to hear it," said Sirius before turning on his heel and storming down the Tower.  
  
Hermione and Remus dashed after him. Unconsciously, their hands found each other, and they ran hand in hand, Hermione only half a step behind him, owing to the narrow, spiral staircase.  
  
They finally caught up to him in the Transfiguration corridor. Remus reached out to touch Sirius's shoulder, and whirled his best friend around to face them.  
  
Sirius did not turn away. He glared coldly at them, his eyes traveling from their faces, to their clasped hands. They let go of each other quickly, not wanting to invoke any more bad feelings.  
  
"I'm so sorry, Sirius," said Hermione, stepping forward. "Love just happens."  
  
He looked up at her, his expression hard to read. If they had been able to scrutinize his countenance longer, they would have discerned wounded pride totally pronounced in his face.  
  
"Love just happens?" he repeated incredulously. "Well, why did it happen with him!" he pointed furiously at Remus, who was highly offended, but decided wisely not to comment. "And how do you know it's love?" he challenged.  
  
Hermione and Remus looked at each other and smiled. "We just know," answered Remus.  
  
Sirius snorted, totally unconvinced.  
  
"Sirius," said Hermione pacifically, reaching out to touch his arm. He tried to pull away but she persisted. "I don't think you really like me in that way very much." He opened his mouth to deny it, but she gave him no chance. "Seriously, Sirius," she paused, smiling at the homophone. "I think this is more of a pride issue than anything else. Am I right?"  
  
Sirius looked at her as if she were crazy, but his expression started changing, very slowly at first. Finally, he nodded slowly.  
  
Hermione smiled. "I'm sorry," she said, dropping her hand from his arm.  
  
"Nothing to be sorry about," he said gruffly. "Now, I'm going off to tell the others what's happened." He grinned. "There was definitely some lip action there."  
  
"Sirius!" exclaimed Hermione.   
  
He hurried off. But before he had gone two steps, he turned back to face Remus. "Congratulations, Moony," he said almost reluctantly, but they could hear he truly meant it. "I would say the best man won, but he happened to have lost in this case." And he was gone.  
  
Remus and Hermione turned to look at one another. Remus took her hands into his. "Rosemary, will you go to the Valentine's Day Dance with me?"  
  
"I don't know what the whole school will think about it," she said. Remus held his breath. "And I don't care," she added. "Of course I'll go with you."  
  
Remus smiled broadly and lifted her off her feet to kiss her. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him back. He set her back on her feet, and they walked away, hand in hand, positively glowing.  
  
"So it begins," muttered a voice in the shadow. Albus Dumbledore had seen all.  
  
~~~~~  
  
Remus and Hermione spent the night walking around the castle. Finally, around nine o'clock by Remus's watch, they knew they had to go to their dorms soon and face the Marauders and Lily before they got caught for being out of bounds.  
  
"They're going to tease us something silly," he told her right outside Lily's dormitory door. They could hear everyone's voices from inside.  
  
"At least we'll face it together," she said sweetly.  
  
"I wish we could face everything together," he said softly, kissing her lightly on the lips.  
  
And for the first time during the most wonderful night of her life, Hermione suddenly realized what she had gotten herself into.  
  
~~~~~  
  
Meanwhile, on the other side of the door, Sirius was getting impatient.  
  
"What should we throw at them when they come in?" he asked. "Dungbombs?"  
  
"You will not!" snapped Lily. "That's horrible. Just because she didn't pick you -"  
  
"I don't care whether she picked me or not. There several more hot chicks at this school whom I haven't gone out with and I mean to go with all of them before term ends."  
  
"You're hopeless," muttered Lily, turning back to her Arithmancy homework.  
  
Sirius looked wistfully at the package of Dungbombs he had gotten out before throwing it to the side. He couldn't throw it at them unless they suspected he still was sour about the whole affair. And Sirius Black never got sour over a girl, especially when he could have his pick from all the girls in the entire school.  
  
"Hey, James," he said, "you don't think they went somewhere else, do you?"  
  
"Like where?"  
  
"Like the seventh year boys' dormitory."  
  
"Black! You know Remus wouldn't do that on the first night of their relationship, and I doubt Rosemary would either," said Lily definitely.  
  
"Don't be so sure," said Sirius. "You didn't see them up there in the Tower. Things were heating up if you know what I mean."  
  
"Well, it was cold up there," said Lily, though she was smiling. "You don't think they are in your dorm, do you? I mean, they would be alone. There's no one else."  
  
"What do you want me to do?" said James. "Go check? What if I walk in on something?"  
  
"I'll do it!" said Peter eagerly.  
  
"Pervert!" muttered Sirius. "Just check up on them on the map," he told James.  
  
"Oh, right," said James, taking out what looked like an ordinary sheet of parchment from among his books. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good," he recited, placing the tip of his wand to the middle of the parchment.  
  
Lines that formed a map crossed and crisscrossed their way across the sheet. Soon, a living map of Hogwarts was in his hand.  
  
"Remus is right outside the door," he said at once. "With-"  
  
His eyes opened wide. Two small dots were right outside the Head Girl's dormitory door. One was, sure enough, labeled Remus Lupin. The other was labeled Hermione Granger. 


	11. Getting Caught

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 11: Getting Caught  
  
Sirius opened the door without waiting for James to finish. He jerked it open and saw Remus and Rosemary kissing.  
  
"Keep it cool, guys. Peter's watching," he warned.   
  
Hermione blushed prettily, and a bit of a troubled look still lingered on her face, but no one really noticed. Remus was blushing as well, and to the others he looked past happy. He looked ecstatic. When they weren't looking, Lily squeezed James's arm and pointed excitedly to their clasped hands.   
  
"They looked like their hands were molded just for each other!" she squeaked. James just nodded dumbfoundedly.  
  
They went to sit on the empty sofa, Hermione curled up comfortably at Remus's side, his arm thrown casually across her shoulders. They were so lost in each other for a few minutes that they did not see their comrades' reactions.   
  
Sirius harbored no real hard feelings towards them. It was wounded pride that had made him bitter for those few minutes. He had never met a girl that had been able to resist the charm of the famous and infamous Sirius Black.  
  
Peter was looking at them jealously. He scowled and turned back to his essay, but the ink marks that appeared on his parchment did not resemble any known alphabet. He was jabbing his quill angrily at the paper, ending up in breaking the quill. If it wasn't impossible by natural colors to turn green, he would certainly have been that color in the face. Though he didn't want Rosemary necessarily, he wanted a girl. Period.  
  
Lily was looking at them dreamily. It was like a perfect fairy tale, even better than her and James's own story. There was no ill-conceived dislike or misunderstandings of personality.  
  
Meanwhile, James was still staring blankly from the Marauder's Map to the couch were Remus and Rosemary were sitting. Sure enough, the dot that sat on the couch was still labeled 'Hermione Granger'. But that was Rosemary Gardener. Unless, it dawned upon him, that wasn't her real name.  
  
As for Remus and Hermione, sitting the way they sat, so close to each other, seemed so natural. In fact, it seemed as if their lives hadn't been whole before now. Happiness. Complete happiness was what they were experiencing right now. Remus just could not keep his eyes off the angel at his side, and Hermione's happiness was only tarnished by the little nagging her common sense was doing. She pushed it out of her mind, however, reveling in only the present.  
  
"So, Moony, how many girls does that make this term? Thirteen?" teased Sirius with a smirk.  
  
Hermione cocked an eyebrow at Remus, though there was a smile on her face.  
  
"Yeah, thirteen minus twelve," said Remus dryly. "Don't be starting rumours, Padfoot. Just because I bea-"  
  
Remus stopped abruptly and looked awkward.  
  
"Hey, it's all right," said Sirius casually.   
  
Hermione could tell he was being proud of being humble. That's Sirius for you, she thought happily yet sadly at the same time. Something of her sadness, however, was betrayed on her face, and Remus asked her very softly:  
  
"What's wrong, love?"  
  
Hermione felt a thrill at how he called her 'love'. It felt so right, so in place. Of course, had Hermione's common sense been working right now, it would seem very wrong. He was her former professor, and Harry's godfather's best friend who was old enough to be her father! Sure, she had had a crush on him in their third year and she still thought he looked handsome from time to time in the present ... but now is the present. She was confusing herself dreadfully, and gave herself a mental shake.  
  
"Nothing at all, darling," she assured him, sitting up to peck his cheek. Remus took this opportunity to hug her to him with the arm that had been draped over her shoulders.  
  
Lily positively burst at their love-filled exchange.  
  
"How in the hell did this happen?" she asked happily.   
  
Sirius gave a fake gasp. "Did Evans just say 'hell'?" he exclaimed, falling out of his chair. "The world is coming to an end and I haven't even asked McGonagall out yet!"  
  
"Stop being so melodramatic, Black," said Lily. "And you want to ask Professor McGonagall out? I've got her for Transfiguration N.E.W.T.s. I could pass on the word, you know."  
  
"Don't you dare," said Sirius, looking horrified. "The old hag -   
  
"She isn't an old hag, Sirius!"  
  
"The old hag's given me one hundred and forty-two detentions in seven years.   
  
Lily shook her head disapprovingly at Sirius, before turning back to Remus and Hermione. "Don't get me wrong, you look perfect for each other, but even I couldn't have told!"  
  
Remus and Hermione shrugged. "Somethings just happen," Hermione replied.  
  
"And I'm glad they do," added Remus.  
  
They smiled at each other and kissed again. Sirius made a noise of disgust.  
  
"Stop it, guys, you're making me sick," he said. "I'm going back to our dorm. Or would you two like to go back to our dorm?" he asked innocently.  
  
Hermione chucked a pillow at him. He caught it easily, laughing.  
  
"You may be quick and smart, smarter than me even I'll admit, but strength is definitely not one of your points," he said, tossing the pillow back at her.  
  
"Oh, go to sleep, Sirius," she said, prying herself from Remus's grasp. "Sorry, darling," she said when he refused to let go. He dropped his arms reluctantly. "I've got third year essays to grade by tomorrow."  
  
Remus pouted, but let his arms drop.  
  
"You sure you're not going to be using the dorm?" asked Sirius.  
  
"Positive," she assured him.  
  
"Fine, then," he said. "I'm going to do the dorm. You coming, Prongs? How 'bout you, Moony? Or would you prefer to stay here with Rosemary, and Lily can clear out?"  
  
"Shut up, Sirius, or would you like me to do it for you?" asked Hermione, pulling out her wand.  
  
"Don't mind him, Rosemary," said Remus. "He just loves being annoying."  
  
Hermione smiled. "I know."  
  
Remus hugged her from behind. "I love you, dear. I'll see you tomorrow."  
  
She stopped shuffling papers and looked up at him. "Of course. At breakfast?"  
  
"No, the Astronomy Tower at five. Or is that too early, love?"  
  
"Nothing's too early or late if I can spend it with you," she answered. "I'll be there at five to five, waiting for you."  
  
"Then, I'll be there at ten to five," he promised. "Goodnight, darling."  
  
"Good night. But I can't bear to be without you for one waking moment," he said.  
  
"You'll be asleep," she pointed out.  
  
"I doubt it," he whispered. "Not when I can't take my mind off of you."  
  
"You'll be seeing each other tomorrow," broke in Sirius, unromantically. "No need to make it seem like you're being separated for more than five hours."  
  
He grabbed Remus by his collar and literally dragged him out of the door. Peter followed, like he always did. Lily went over to James, kissed him good night, and unceremoniously threw him out the door.  
  
"I want all the details," said Lily as she slammed the door shut behind her boyfriend. "Remus so shy, and so sad sometimes. You've made him so happy."  
  
"Yes, and he's made me so happy," said Hermione, a dreamy expression crossing over her face.  
  
"I can tell," said Lily. "The stuff he said to you!" She sighed happily. "I mean, I know James can be romantic when he wants to be, but I never knew Remus had that in him."  
  
"It is funny, yet so romantic how love can make the shyest of boys into poetic wonders," smiled Hermione. Then, the image of a red-haired freckle-faced boy flashed across her memory. (A/N: Not because she likes him!) She remembered some of the pretty stupid things Ron had said to her to try to get her attention.  
  
"I can also tell this is something serious," continued Lily, not noticing Hermione's suddenly twisted expression. "As far as I know, Remus has never had a girlfriend. A lot of the girls moon over him, though. He's so sweet and smart and serious!"  
  
"You know, Lily, if I didn't know you were in love with James, I would think you had some kind of a crush on Remus," teased Hermione.  
  
"No, I love James!" declared Lily. "But just because I'm going out with him, doesn't mean I can't appreciate the good qualities of other boys. Besides, nothing and no one can take Remus away from you know. The things and people he loves...he loves them passionately."  
  
"So you're just extremely happy for me, is that it?"  
  
"Exactly!"  
  
"I know. I'm extremely happy for me come to think of it, but I've got to run for the library. When I went to look for Remus, I left the third year essays in the library."  
  
"Rosemary, you can't! You'll get caught! Besides, the library's closed by now," protested Lily.  
  
"I promised Professor Flitwick I'd grade them for him. Don't worry. I won't get caught. Besides, if Filch or Mrs. Norris catch me, they can't do anything about it. I'm a student teacher anyway. They can't throw me in detention."  
  
"Be careful," whispered Lily after her. "Don't get caught."  
  
"I won't," assured Hermione. "I promise." She slipped out and hurried noiselessly toward the library.  
  
A few corridors away James was lagging behind his friends, still thinking of what the Marauder's Map had revealed to him. He was pondering whether or not he should tell the others. But he didn't want to spoil Remus's happiness. He glanced back down at the parchment in his hands before, quite suddenly, he stuffed it into his pocket and took off in the opposite direction he was traveling in and headed for the library.  
  
AN: I know this chapter didn't have much stuff in it. For those hopeless romantics out there, including myself, this chapter is for you. I hope to have more content in my next chapter. Please read and review! 


	12. The Book

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 12: The Book  
  
Hermione reached the doors of the library to find them out. She quickly unlocks it with a spell and slips into the dark library. She knew every inch of the library like the back of her hand and navigated her way effortlessly. She found the table that held all of her things and picked up a neat little stack of essays and her bag.  
  
She started to walk towards the door when she tripped over something. The essays flew from her hands and she fell to the floor. Cursing, she muttered 'Lumos' and saw what she had tripped over. Right in the middle of the floor, was a copy of Hogwarts: A History. She picked it up curiously. It looked exactly like the copy she had bought only last week. Last week in her world, anyway. She looked at the copyright date on one of the first few pages. Copyright: 1998.  
  
She stared in disbelief. This copy couldn't be hers because she didn't bring it with her. And it seemed as if this book wasn't left here by accident. It was as if it were lying there in wait for her. Her instinct was to look around, but before she had so much as raised her wand, a hand came up from behind her and clapped over her mouth. She tried to scream, but the noise was stifled.  
  
"Do you usually take midnight strolls to the library, Hermione?" asked James conversationally.  
  
"James, don't -" she gasped and turned to face him. Her eyes were so wide that he could see everything reflected in them.  
  
He nodded grimly and looked her squarely in the eye.   
  
"But how did you -" she breathed.  
  
He was one step ahead of her already. He took the Map out and showed it to her. Sure enough, there she was.  
  
"The Marauders' Map," she said faintly.   
  
"Yes, the Marauders' Map never lies," he said, then stopped short. "Hang on, how do you know it's called the Marauder's Map?"  
  
"I've seen it before," she said. "Or after, actually."  
  
"Hermione, is it?" She nodded silently. He continued, "Are you really from the future?" he asked.  
  
"Of course! Ask Dumbledore himself!" she said defensively.  
  
"Then, why did you give us a fake name?" he challenged.  
  
"Because I'll meet Remus and Sirius again in the future. If they knew me as Hermione Granger now, then they'd meet me later on as Hermione Granger, it just wouldn't work out!"  
  
James pondered her answer for a moment. "True," he said reluctantly. "But now we know."  
  
"You can't let them know!" exclaimed Hermione desperately. "You can't!"  
  
"And why shouldn't I? I think Remus especially has the right to know that his girlfriend is not really who she says she is," argued James.  
  
"What's in a name? A person is defined by their personality. Rosemary is the same as Hermione. The same interests, the same personality. Hell, I look the same!"  
  
"Sure, it may have been all right, but you're going out with Remus!" exclaimed James. "Sure, you're here right now, but what about when you go back to where you belong? To your own time and place? What'll happen to Remus, eh? He'll be heartbroken, that's what's going to happen. And you'll be heartbroken yourself, unless all those things you said tonight to Remus was just a show and you're amusing yourself while you're here."  
  
"No!" she cried. "I love Remus more than you could ever imagine!"  
  
James's face softened. "What you said may be true. You probably love Remus more than I could ever imagine, but your tone was enough to give me a hint." He lay a comforting hand on her shoulder. She smiled weakly, but her expression was still very troubled.   
  
"I'm sorry, Rose - Hermione. Everything's all right."  
  
"No, it's not!" she said. "Every single thing you said was right. When I do leave here, Remus will be hurt, and the last thing I ever want to do is hurt him!"  
  
"Then tell him who you really are and he'll know you in the future."  
  
"It doesn't work like that!" she snapped. "You can't just go back in time and mess things up! Time travel's so complicated. Just this very conversation we're having right now could have screwed the future!"  
  
"You don't know that," he said. "Maybe in my future's past, I really did meet you. Maybe we really did do this all. Maybe you were supposed to go back in time so that this could be in our past." He paused, seeing if his words had any effect. She seemed to be getting convinced, so he said, "I guess we'll see you at the Astronomy Tower tomorrow, at five to five, then."  
  
Hermione snapped out of her musings. "No, you won't."  
  
"What?" he said incredulously. "You're fulfilling the past...if that makes any sense at all."  
  
"I'm not going to be there at the top of the Astronomy Tower at five, or five to five, or whatever I promised Remus," she said quietly. "It ends right now."  
  
She started picking up the essays that had scattered all over the floor. "How could I have been so stupid as to let things go like this?" she said angrily, talking more to herself than James. "I knew I couldn't get too attached to this time. I shouldh't have fallen for him!"   
  
"Wait, you know him the future, and you don't like him there?" questioned James.   
  
"I had a crush on him, if that counts. Nothing serious...or so I thought." She gathered the last of the essays, then just kneeled there, staring off to space. James, from his position, couldn't see her face. "But at least if I break it now, he won't get that hurt." She looked over at him. "Will he?"  
  
James shook his head vigorously, but slowly and reluctantly nodded. "Sorry to break this to you, Rose - Hermione, but Remus isn't like ... other guys, I guess. He's like the opposite of Sirius, if you understand me. He's not looking for a good time; he's in it for the long run. I mean, if you broke it off right now, he'd be awfully hurt. But he'll get over it ... in time."  
  
A choked sob escaped from her throat and a few tears fell silently down her cheeks. "It's all my fault."  
  
"No, it isn't. Listen to me, Hermione. Didn't you say that 'some things just happen?' You had no control over that. It's like this: I loved Lily ever since I came to Hogwarts if you can imagine that, but she hated me. Hated me and my big ego. But look at us now. We're together. Though I'll tell others, especially Sirius, that she fell for my charms in the end, I know that she just started liking me because she hated me so much. Do you understand what I'm saying? Love just happens, especially when you're not expecting it."  
  
She pondered his words for a few minutes. "You're right -"  
  
"Excellent!" he cut in before she could finish. "Then, Remus should be seeing you at the top of the Tower at five to five just like you promised."  
  
"-but just because you're right doesn't make this right," she continued.  
  
James's face fell. "Listen, forget all that I said before. Just think of Remus here."  
  
"I am thinking of Remus!" she snapped. "Better to break it now that let it go on." She spoke as if she were trying to convince herself as well. "The more we get attatched to each other, the harder it will be to let go. It would be best if Dumbledore found out how to get me back to the future right now!"  
  
"Well, what are you going to do before Dumbledore does find way?" challenged James. "You can't go around avoiding Remus, you know. You teach at Charms, you know."  
  
Hermione paused. That definitely was a problem. He was right. Then, suddenly, she remembered.   
  
"The book," she whispered. "The book has the answers." 


	13. Choice

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 13: Choice  
  
"Book?" repeated James blankly. "What book?"  
  
"That book on time-travel!" she said. "The Mysteries and Methods of Time-Travel! It's the book one of you checked out."  
  
Comprehension dawned on his face. He grew grave. "You can't."  
  
"Yes, it has to be in there!" she said. "If only I had told Dumbledore about that book when he pulled me into his office, I would have been out of here a long while ago."  
  
She quickly got up and dashed for the exit, James at her heels.  
  
"Rosemary - Hermione, you at least owe Remus an explanation. You can't just disappear! What will I say when he asks where you've gone?"  
  
Hermione stopped short and wheeled around to face him. He nearly ran into her.  
  
"You're not going to tell him anything," she said commandingly. Then, her tone changed to desperation. "You can't!"  
  
"You can't," he answered. "You can't do this to Remus."  
  
"I'm pretty sure he'll get over it," she said, though she sounded a bit doubtful. "He'll get over it in time. He won't let one lost love rule his life forever!"  
  
"If you believe that, you don't know your own boyfriend!"  
  
They had reached the Head Girl's room again, and considerably lowered their voices.  
  
"You can't," he repeated again. "For God's sake, Remus has got enough to plague him without the loss of a love!"  
  
"What do you want me to do then, huh?" she challenged. "Live out this time and never go back to where I'm supposed to be? Because no matter how ..." tears started to gather in her eyes "... no matter how much this seems so right, this is not where I belong." She took a deep breath. "You've got to promise me that - that whatever happens, you'll never tell Remus my real name. Nor Sirius. You can't just play with the future like this."  
  
He kept his mouth shut defiantly. She clasped her hands and begged, "Please, James. Just say it. Just say that you promise it."  
  
Before he really knew what he was doing, James said it: "I promise."  
  
The instant those words left his mouth, Hermione whipped out her wand and shot a spell at him. It didn't do him harm of any kind, but he did glow for a minute.  
  
"What the hell did you do to me?" he hissed.  
  
"You promised, James, and you'll have to keep your word or suffer the consequences now." She couldn't help keep the sad tone out of her voice. A big part of her subconscious had been hoping he wouldn't grant her request, thereby giving her reason not to ensure he would keep his word.  
  
"What do you mean consequences?" he said suspiciously.  
  
"I think it would be better if you never found out, James," she said. "Good night, and thank you for letting me see the light ... or darkness. It depends on how you look at it."  
  
She closed the door behind her, leaving James feeling more horrible than he had ever felt in his life. He had played a large part in ruining a very promising relationship moreover romance. He couldn't ignore that weight of guilt, knowing that in the morning, Rosemary might very well be gone and he would be the only one who'd know why she went. He'd have to witness Remus's anguish when he realized the love of his life was gone.  
  
"If only I'd kept my big fat mouth shut!" he exclaimed, his voice echoing down the corridor.  
  
"Yes, if only you'd had," responded a tired-looking portrait dryly.  
  
James stalked off to the Head Boy's dormitory, furious with himself. He opened the door noiselessly and slipped inside. Originally, the Head Boy's dorm only had one bed, but now it sported three more. The three additional beds now had three people in them, his best friends. He looked over to the bed in the corner of the room, in which Remus slept. He paused and looked at the sleeping figure sadly.  
  
He was about halfway across the room when a voice spoke out, scaring the wits out of him. He jumped abut a foot in the air.  
  
"Sorry to scare you, Prongs," said Remus, crawling out of his sheets and sitting on the end of his bed. "Where've you been?"  
  
"I-I-I-" James stuttered. Remus appeared not to have noticed.  
  
"You don't think it's five yet, do you?" continued Remus. "James, I'm so in love with her it hurts. Have you ever felt that way about Lily? Because, frankly, it scares me. Werewolves are supposed to be outcasts from society, and here I am with four best friends (A/N: including Lily) and a girlfriend." He paused and frowned. "You think I'm doing the right thing? I mean, I could endanger her."  
  
James could hardly contain himself. He was about to tell Remus all about Hermione and what she was planning to do, so that Remus would put a stop to it. But he couldn't. He'd promsed Hermione and there was that spell. His face worked for a minute. before he answered:  
  
"I don't know, Remus. I really don't know."  
  
~~~~~  
  
When Hermione had slipped inside, Lily was already asleep. It was apparent that she had attempted to stay awake by putting in some extra study time from the book scattered all over her bed, but she had still fallen asleep. Personally, Hermione was very glad Lily wasn't there to talk about her and Remus's relationship. Sure, it had been excellent to talk about before, but now ... she didn't think she could bear to hear anyone say Remus's name out loud even though some little annoying voice in her head was saying his voice over and over again.  
  
She went to a pile of books at her bedside table and pulled out The Mysteries and Methods of Time Travel from the bottom of the stack. With a heavy heart, she opened the cover and skimmed the introduction and first three chapters. When she looked up to check the time, she realized that though she was reading the words, not one idea had sunk into her brain, simply because she didn't want it too. She put the book away, vowing to give it to Dumbledore tomorrow to do the unenvied honours of finding a way back to the future for her.  
  
She lay in bed for quite a while, staring up at the canopy above her. But it wasn't the canopy she saw, it was Remus's face, smiling and looking so ... happy. She made her thoughts go back to the present-day Remus. She could never recall him ever being happy. Of course, when your best friends are dead, you can't find much to be happy about, she thought.  
  
She felt a stab of guilt when she realized that she had just added the loss of a love to his list of losses dated to the present day. This list included, a good opportunity for living life. She cursed the werewolf who had bitten him, and hoped he was rotting in hell. Her guilt of doing this to her love was unbearable ... for yes he was her true love. Not Harry. Not Ron. Not Viktor. Not anybody else. But Remus Lupin, werewolf, twenty years older than her, former professor. All the odds were against it, but love always finds the strangest of places and people and times to bloom.  
  
Her guilt somewhat lessened when she reasoned that Dumbledore could always perform Memory Charms on the lot of them. But her sadness, if possible, tripled. Then, he would have no memory of Rosemary Gardener even. It would be almost as if all of this was a dream.   
  
She finally drifted off to sleep. Her last thought was of - who else? - Remus.  
  
~~~~~ This chapter is dedicated to those who have known or know love, especially those who know it yet the other party does not. Do you get what I mean? If you do, and you are included in the *especially those*, I totally sympathise. I suffer from that same thing every day of my life, and I feel it too. My advice is, don't really let it get you down. If it's meant to be, it will happen sooner or later, whenever love chooses to bloom. 


	14. What She Chose In The End

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 14: What She Chose in the End  
  
Hermione's slumber was fitful, and she kept waking up every few minutes. After about the twentieth time of waking up, Hermione glanced at the clock. Her stomach gave a jolt. It was four forty-five in the morning. In five minutes, perhaps he was there already, Remus would be waiting for her at the Top of the Astronomy Tower.  
  
James had been awake when Remus had jumped out of bed. The chap hadn't gotten any sleep that night. He stole across the room and practically ran out the door. James, sat up sadly before pulling on his robes and following his best friend, knowing what they'd find when they got up to the Astronomy Tower.  
  
At four forty-seven, Hermione couldn't take it anymore. She pulled her robes on, ran a brush through her hair, and picked up The Mysteries and Methods of Time Travel. She was careful not to wake the sleeeping Lily. The minute she was out of the room, she made a beeline for Dumbledore's office, hoping he would be awake.  
  
By that time, Remus was at the top of the Astronomy Tower. It was still dark out and it was a brisk kind of day, but he breathed the crisp air in deeply. He looked across the grounds at the Forbidden Forest and thought that nothing had ever looked so beautiful. He leaned up against the wall and waited for Hermione to come.  
  
James walked up the spiraling steps of the Astronomy Tower with a heavy heart. When he finally reached the open air of the top of the Tower, he looked around for Remus.  
  
"Hey, what are you doing here?" asked Remus, standing up straight.  
  
James shrugged.  
  
"You know, I'll be meeting Rosemary here in a few minutes so you'd best clear out."  
  
James nodded dumbly and actually turned on his heel and started walking away. Remus, totally bemused to his friend's strange behavior called after him.  
  
"Hey, what's going on?"  
  
James took this as a sign and doubled back.  
  
"Rosemary's going back to the future, Remus. You know that book Sirius stole from the library? She's going to use it to find a way back. She wanted to break things off with you before you got too involved with each other and she couldn't let go. Remus, stop her. For the love of ... for the love of love stop her."  
  
James had purposely avoided giving away her name.  
  
Remus just stared at James, taking a few moments to process this information. During this time, James's face turned purple and his hair orange. This, of course, he was oblivious to.   
  
Remus did the slightest of double takes when he looked up at James again, but didn't say anything about it. "So you mean to tell me that Rosemary could be on her way back to the future right now?"  
  
James nodded fervently.  
  
"Holy shit!" swore Remus, practically flying down the stairs, James right behind him.  
  
~~~~~  
  
Hermione was at standing right in front of the entrance to Dumbledore's office. She was dumbfounded as to what the password maybe. She had been so scared when he had brought her in the last two times that she hadn't heard it. She tried to think for a moment. It had to be some kind of candy. She knew that much.  
  
"Rosemary?!" yelled a voice as its owner rounded the corridor.  
  
She spun around and saw Remus and a purple-faced, orange-haired James right next to him. She let out a cry of exasperation.  
  
"Where are you going?" asked Remus, trying to take a casual approach on it. But he broke his approach before she could even say a thing. "Because you can't!"  
  
"Remus," she said softly, "I have to."  
  
"You don't!" he argued, stepping up to her. "You said it yourself last night. 'Let's not think about the future.'"  
  
"It's unavoidable. It's inevitable. I don't belong here. I'm going to have to go back one day. I can't just stay here forever!"  
  
"Why not, Rosemary!" he demanded. "Think about it. We could be here. Together. And we'd be happy. I've never been this content in my life."  
  
Hermione felt like a wretch, making his life seem so absolutely perfect one second, then taking away his new world the next. But she steeled her will and said:  
  
"Remus, I belong in the present ... your future. That's the way it is. That's the way it's going to be. You can't just change stuff like that. You can't fiddle with the future all you want just because it suits you."  
  
"What could come of it but good?" he asked. "It would be great for both of us."  
  
"Remus," she said. She felt her will breaking. "I..." she trailed off, not knowing what to say."  
  
Remus knew that he had almost totally convinced her. He decided to go the whole nine yards.  
  
"Fine, Rosemary. Go back to where you belong, but before you go just give me one thing." He stepped even closer to her.  
  
"What?" she asked breathlessly.  
  
"A kiss."  
  
He closed the distance between them and kissed her soundly on the lips. She knew she should resist him before she couldn't ... but she couldn't. It was as simple as that. Love seriously is a powerful tool, she thought, giving in to the kiss. Love seriously is wonderful, she mused.  
  
"No," she said firmly, pushing herself away from him. She looked into his eyes, and saw how deep she had cut him.  
  
He stepped closer to her again. "Yes," he begged.  
  
She stopped short. "All right," she positi proceeding to let him kiss her again.  
  
Who really knows when they were going to break apart, or if they were ever going to. James, smiling like a person who knows he's done a good deed, started walking away when someone's voice called him back.  
  
"Mr. Potter, is your appearance the result of you interrupting Mr. Lupin and Ms. Gardener?" he asked.  
  
James turned to see Albus Dumbledore standing where the gargoyle had been standing just a moment ago. Remus and Hermione pulled apart as though burned. It did look as though they were burned though, they were so flushed.  
  
"Was there something you wanted to ask me, Miss Gardener?" questioned Dumbledore, eyes twinkling.  
  
Hermione's hand grasped the time turner book tighter and she made a move to show it to Dumbledore. Remus's hand stopped her. She didn't try to resist.  
  
"Nothing, Professor Dumbledore. Nothing," she assured him.  
  
He gazed piercingly at her for a few seconds, and she was on the verge of telling him the truth when he nodded and smiled.  
  
"Now, it is five fifteen in the morning. I suggest you go back to your dorms and get some sleep if that's possible." He paused. "Don't get any ideas," he winked.  
  
~~~~~ Authors Notes:  
  
Will they get any ideas? Review to tell me if they should be innocent lovers, or the other kind. If you guys do choose the other kind, it won't be explicit, mind you. 


	15. Together

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 15: Together  
  
Remus and Hermione walked up to the Astronomy Tower, hand in hand, absolutely lost in each other. The sun was just coming up over the horizon. It was quite a sight to see, but it was nothing compared to seeing two young and innocent people basking in the glow of love.  
  
"Rosemary?" asked Remus softly into her hair.  
  
"Yes?" she asked.  
  
"Would you have seriously left me?" he asked, his voice oddly strangled.  
  
Hermione turned around to face him. "Sometimes duty overcomes what you really want, Remus."  
  
"And now?"  
  
"Now? Now I'm with you. Where I belong."  
  
Remus couldn't help but smile when she snuggled against him. He also couldn't help feel that their time together would be interminable. And he also couldn't help but feel he was terribly wrong.  
  
~~~~~  
  
They spent all morning up there, in peaceful and content silence, watching the sun rise higher and higher into the sky. They sat on the ground, Hermione resting upon Remus's shoulder. The sun was well up by the time they thought to think of the time.  
  
"It's ten o'clock," he told her. "We've missed breakfast."  
  
"Ten o'clock!" she exclaimed. "We've missed classes already!"  
  
She made to get up, but Remus pulled her back down into his lap. "We can afford to miss a day," he assured her.  
  
She tried to look disapprovingly at him and failed completely. "What?!" she spluttered. "We couldn't do that!"  
  
"Of course we could," he assured her. "We could sneak out to Hogsmeade if you like or anywhere you want to go."  
  
He gave her a pleading look, one he knew she could not resist.  
  
"Well..." said Hermione slowly.  
  
He strengthened his puppy dog look.  
  
"All right, then," said Hermione. "But we mustn't be seen."  
  
"Of course not," he agreed.  
  
The corridors of the main castle were deserted as they walked towards the entrance hall. They met no one, as everyone was in class. They soon faced a problem, however, as soon as they were outside the great oak doors of Hogwarts, on the front step.  
  
"Someone's sure to spot us going across the grounds towards Hogsmeade," mused Hermione. "She looked upwards at the windows reflecting sunlight overhead.  
  
"Yes," said Remus. He was looking directly towards the gates of Hogwarts, towards Hogsmeade. Slowly, his eyes moved from towards a certain willow, a whomping willow.  
  
Hermione glanced up at him and saw where he was looking. A look of comprehension dawned on her face.  
  
"Do you think no one would see us if we made a break for the Willow?" she asked him quietly.  
  
He looked down at her startled for a moment. "Erm, how would the Whomping Willow help us any?" he stuttered.  
  
Hermione waved an impatient hand. "I know all about the Willow, Remus. There's a passage underneath it that leads to the Shrieking Shack. You go there for your transformations. I know."  
  
Remus opened his mouth to ask something, but decided otherwise and took her hand. " I do wish we had James's Cloak with us, but it'll take too much time to go get it now. We'll make a break for it.  
  
She nodded in agreeance, and they broke out into the run, making a beeline for the Whomping Willow. They ran past it, to it's opposite side, so that the thrashing tree would conceal them from anyone who might be looking out the castle windows.  
  
The tree seemed to sense them, because it started flailing more wildly, as if it were straining to reach them. In fact, Hermione was almost whacked by the tree if Remus hadn't pulled her out of harm's way quickly.   
  
"Okay," said Remus, looking around for a fallen branch. "Damn, the Hagrid must've actually done his job today. That must be a first. He's usually too busy training the thestrals. Rumor has it that those things are going to be pulling carriages that will take the students to school from the station. I'm glad I'll be graduated by then. They're an omen, thestrals."  
  
"No, they're not," said Hermione quickly. "It's just because they're associated with death."  
  
This discussion about thestrals would not get them any closer to finding anything to prod the knot to freeze the tree, though, and they soon realized that. As Remus was still searching for some fallen branches still, Hermione took out her wand.  
  
"That's not long enough to reach the trunk without being whacked, you know," he informed her.  
  
"I know. I'm not a complete idiot, you know." She shot a spell at the knot and hit it with dead aim. "Bullseye," she sang happily. More than once had Ron, herself, and Harry used this passageway to get into Hogsmeade, and she had always been the only one to be able to hit the target so precisely.  
  
"Excellent aim," he commented, allowing her to enter the tunnel and slipping in right after her.  
  
"Lumos," she said, and with her wand now giving off light, she led the way. "I've had some practice."  
  
They continued in silence down the passageway. Hermione couldn't help but feel that Remus wasn't at his happiest right now. But she couldn't blame him; the memories that he must be reliving right now couldn't be the best.  
  
This feeling was even more pronounced when they entered the Shrieking Shack. Remus gazed around the dusty room full of furniture in pieces with a hard to read expression on his face. Hermione wished dearly she had learned to brew the Wolfsbane Potion, so as to help him during his next transformation.  
  
"Come on," she said softly, taking his arm and leading him towards the door.  
  
He seemed to snap out of his reverie and smiled at her. "No, through the back way," he said, turning around. "Someone might see us, and the Shack's supposed to be haunted."  
  
Hermione followed him out the back door and around the ramshackle house.  
  
"The Three Broomsticks is open," he told her. "We could go there if you like."  
  
"Let's."  
  
They strolled over to the wizarding bar, and ordered a butterbeer with two straws from the old lady behind the counter.  
  
"One butterbeer, two straws, Rosmerta!" barked the old lady. "And don't mess it up this time!"  
  
Remus and Hermione found an empty booth in a secluded corner of the bar. They sat there, in slightly awkward silence, unconsciously inching closer and closer to each other.  
  
"You know, I might actually kiss you again," Remus informed her matter-of-factly.  
  
"You know I'll actually let you," she answered saucily.  
  
Remus smiled and kissed her. Well, it wasn't actually heated; they were both too controlled to lose their heads, but they didn't break apart until a waitress brought their butterebeer. In fact, they might not have noticed her if she hadn't tripped over her own feet and spilled it on the table.  
  
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" she wailed, cleaning up the mess with a wave of her wand.  
  
She refilled the bottle with another wave of her wand and placed two straws in before walking away.  
  
Hermione smiled at the unexperienced waitress's retreating back, knowing that the clumsy young girl would become manager of the Three Broomsticks one day. Hermione picked up her wand, which had been on the table, and wiped it clean. She smiled at him warmly as he took her hand. "Shall we pick up where we left off?" She was about to pocket her wand when he suddenly tensed.  
  
"I wouldn't put that away if I were you," he said, drawing out his own wand.  
  
"Why not?" she asked, bewildered.  
  
"We're not the only ones who skipped school today," he told her. 


	16. Hogsmeade

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Let's of thanks to Katherine who gave me the idea of them snogging in the Three Broomsticks when they get caught. Thanx, Kat. You're my best friend and hero! (Erin doesn't give me any ideas.)   
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 16: Hogsmeade  
  
She looked up and saw a certain gang of seventh year Slytherins she only knew so well, walking towards from the opposite side of the bar with evil smiles on their faces.  
  
"Oh, great," she muttered, standing up next to Remus.  
  
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" asked Lucius Malfoy. "Lupin, I knew you were open-minded but even I didn't think you were blind enough to kiss a Mudblood."  
  
"Don't you taste her Mudblood muck on your lips?" said Bellatrix Lestrange.  
  
"Take that back, both of you," said Remus dangerously.  
  
"Ah, but of course, a Mudblood would be fit for Lupin," said Snape.  
  
Remus blanched. He was sure no one but himself, Snape and, Rosemary could know what Snape had insinuated, but nonetheless.  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked the thick-witted Crabbe.  
  
"He means that anyone who hangs out with the likes of Potter and Black are practically level with Mudbloods," answered Malfoy swiftly. "Practically."  
  
Remus raised his wand threateningly, but Hermione knew that curses and hexes wouldn't help them out of their predicament. They were outnumbered. She glanced down at her wand, but she knew that would be no weapon right now. Not even she could curse so many people that fast. But she had another weapon: that of words.  
  
"Eat dirt, Malfoy," she spat. "Or should I say death?"  
  
Though Lucius Malfoy was very pale, Hermione was almost positive he paled some more.  
  
"What did you say, Mudblood?" challenged Malfoy. But Hermione could hear a slight quiver of fear in his voice.  
  
"Eat death, Malfoy," she said contemptously. "Though I daresay you do already."  
  
Malfoy leaned forward over the table at her. Up close, she could see real fear reflected in his eyes. "You just keep your hole shut, Mudblood," he hissed. He straightened up and turned abruptly on his heel and started for the door. "We're going," he snapped, and the others, with last hate-filled glares at the couple, followed him out.  
  
"What was 'eat death' supposed to mean?" he questioned her.  
  
She took up the bottle of butterbeer, and sipped meditatively, wondering whether there would be any consequence if she told him about the Death Eaters. She set down the butterbeer and opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. She kept on opening and closing her mouth, but no sound would come out.  
  
Glancing at her perplexedly, Remus bent down to take a sip of butterbeer. Her eyes opened wider as she stared at the bottle of butterbeer. She snatched it out of his reach.  
  
"What?" exclaimed Remus. He stared at her confusedly.  
  
She pointed at her throat, shaking her head at the same time frantically.  
  
"You lost your voice?" he asked incredulously.  
  
She nodded and pointed at the butterbeer.  
  
"Wha-?" Remus stopped halfway through the word though, and jumped to his feet. "Malfoy! I'm going to kill him!"  
  
Hermione pulled him back down, shaking her head.  
  
"You're right," he assented. "We should go back to the castle. Sorry our first real date ended so disastrously."  
  
Hermione couldn't help but smile. She kissed him on the cheek to tell him that everything was all right.   
  
"It's lunchtime, which means everyone's going to be out and about," Remus told her, glancing at his watch. "We can't join the others in the Great Hall, because the teachers are going to question where we were. We could sneak to Pomfrey to help you get your voice back, but she'd question us how you lost your voice. If we told her that you lost it naturally, she'd figure it was by whatever Malfoy put in the butterbeer. If we told her that Malfoy did it, they'd know we skipped class. We could go up to your dorm, research what Malfoy did to you, and see if we can fix it ourselves, though. But the problem is getting into the castle without running into any of the teachers."  
  
Remus pondered this problem, but Hermione solved it almost instantly. She left a generous tip for the future Madam Rosemerta, and dragged him outside, pointing towards Honeydukes.  
  
"Of course. The secret passage leads right to the outside of Gryffindor common room," he whispered quietly. "Lily's dorm is right down the hall."  
  
The store of Honeydukes was empty except for the saleslady. They weren't counting on this, however. Honeydukes was always crowded on Hogsmeade weekends, but today wasn't.  
  
"How can I help you today, dears?" she asked them kindly.  
  
Out of the corner of his eye, Remus saw Hermione stealthily withdrawing his wand. Having played this trick with Sirius and James before, Remus knew exactly what to do. He stepped in front of her, shielding her from the saleslady's view.  
  
"Um, we'd like some - good Lord what's happening!" he yelled melodramatically.  
  
Hermione had bewitched several jars of candy to float crazily behind the witch, who turned around, yelled, and proceeded to try to uncharm them. While she was preoccupied in doing this, Remus and Hermione snuck down into the cellar and went under the trapdoor.   
  
Soon enough, they reached Hogwarts. Blinking in the sudden brightness, they quickly got out and ran for the Head Girl's room.  
  
"Excuse me, Mr. Lupin, Miss Gardener," said a crisp, very familiar voice behind them. "Where have you been all day?" 


	17. The Best of Friends

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 17: The Best Of Friends  
  
Hermione and Remus froze, and started turning slowly around. They looked at each other, knowing that they were done for. They turned to face who they knew was Professor McGonagall, but found themselves facing a disapproving Lily, and amused James, Sirius, and Peter.  
  
"You should have seen your faces," said James.  
  
Hermione and Remus stared at him. His face was still purple and his hair orange though he appeared not to have noticed yet. The others had apparently kept the fact that he was a little ... different... to themselves.  
  
"You should see yours," commented Remus.  
  
"What?" asked James confusedly.  
  
"Where have you been all day?" demanded Lily, opening her door and letting them all in. "All the teachers were wondering."  
  
Remus opened his mouth to explain, but Sirius cut him off.  
  
"We've been wondering too, you know. What could Rosemary - a girl - and Remus - a boy - be doing...alone? Hmmmmm, let's think."  
  
Sirius plopped down on the couch while James went over to the mirror.  
  
"We didn't do anything of the sort," said Remus matter of factly. "We -"  
  
"What the hell did you do to me!" James exclaimed.  
  
Remus shrugged. "You just started changing colours at the top of the Tower."  
  
Hermione opened her mouth, but remembered she couldn't talk. Hastily, she unscrewed an ink bottle and started scribbling on a scrap of parchment.  
  
"Hey, Rosemary, what's wrong?" asked Sirius. "Cat got your tongue?"  
  
Hermione shot daggers at him with her eyes.  
  
"As a matter of fact, yes, in a manner of speaking," answered Remus for her. "As I was going to say, we...." He recounted all the events of their visit to Hogsmeade.  
  
"Malfoy, that..." Remus trailed off, looking for the right words to describe Malfoy. Hermione, meanwhile, was calling Malfoy all the names she could think of. Some of them were so obscene, it was a good thing that Hermione had lost her voice.  
  
"Whoa there," said Remus, placing his hands on her shoulders and looking her straight in the eye. "I totally agree with you."  
  
Hermione laughed silently...well, she didn't have a voice, and gave the scrap of parchment she had scribbled on to Remus.  
  
"Well, James, it says here that Rosemary put a spell on you that would make you turn colors if you broke your promise to tell me that she was going back to the future," Remus alked over to James and shook his hand. "Thanks, mate. She'd be gone if it weren't for you. You're the best of friends, you know. Unlike some people who go around assuming things." He glanced at Sirius.  
  
"I'd give a whole lot more to be your enemy if you'd turn me back to my right colour," growled James.  
  
Remus scanned Hermione's scribble again. "She doesn't say how to undo the spell."  
  
Hermione whipped out her wand, pointed it straight at James, and said the countercurse. Without her voice, however, the spell did not work as it was supposed to. Instead of returning to his usual complexion and jet black hair, James went from solid purple and orange to polkadotted purple and orange. Everyone but Hermione and James burst out laughing.  
  
"Hey James," said Sirius, pulling a long face when everyone else had quieted down somewhat. "You sure you're feeling all right? You're looking a bit ... off colour."  
  
This set off another uproar of laughter.  
  
"What are you laughing at?" demanded James, drawing himself up to his fullest height, ego getting the better of him.  
  
Lily reduced her laughing to a fit of giggles. "Nothing James. It just never struck me how colourful a fellow you could be."  
  
Hermione, although she had been too appalled by the reaction her spell had had on James before, looked as though she were a mime having a laugh attack.  
  
"Be quiet, you," said James. "If you say one word ..."  
  
Hermione smirked at him, pointed at her throat again, and continued laughing.  
  
"Just tell one of them how to reverse it," said James exasperatedly. "I do have afternoon classes, you know."  
  
"Well, you survived the morning classes surprisingly well," commented Sirius. "Despite the fact that everyone was paying more attention to your features than mine for once. No, my mistake, I still outshone you."  
  
Hermione wrote the incantation and the proper wand and wrist movements on another scrap of parchment to hand to Remus. (A/N: And I never really got the hang of Latin, so I won't put the incantation here.) Remus read the parchment several times, brow furrowed, practicing the complicated movements. After the third try, he finally got it right. He shot a questioning look at Hermione, who nodded encouragingly.  
  
"Erm, are you sure you know what you're doing, Moony?" asked James cautiously. "'Cause while you were practicing there, you looked a little unsure of yourself."  
  
"Positive," answered Remus vaguely, consulting the parchment one last time.  
  
"Positive to what?" asked James.  
  
"Positive that I'm going to screw this up," he answered, raising his wand and pointing it at James at the same time.  
  
James, despite his earlier impatience of being reinstated to his right color, dodged behind the sofa.  
  
"Oh, don't be a sissy," said Lily, looking over the back of the couch. "Remus is excellent at incantations, and didn't you want to be returned to your right state?"   
  
"I think I'll just stay this way for now," he said from behind the couch. "I think purple and orange really are my colours."  
  
Remus strode over to James and pulled his best friend up to his feet. "James, I was just joking. I can do it."  
  
"Humph!" said James. "Yeah, as well as you can play Quidditch."  
  
Remus performed the incantation, a jet of white light hitting James right in the face. For a few seconds nothing happened, then James fell to the floor yelling and screaming in agony. Remus stared down at his friend's writhing form in horror. After about a minute, James lay still, face down.  
  
Lily and Hermione rushed to James.  
  
"I'm sure I did it right," muttered Remus, though he sounded doubtful. "What did I do wrong, Rosemary?"  
  
She looked up at him and shrugged. Meanwhile, Lily was cooing:  
  
"James, dear. Are you all right? Answer me. James? Answer me, dammit!"  
  
They were all rather startled by Lily's tone. James even started in shock, uncovering a normal looking face.  
  
"What happened?" asked Peter.  
  
"Nothing," said James nonchalantly, jumping to his feet. "I was just being a bit .... melodramatic."  
  
He glanced at the mirror, admiring his features, and ruffling his hair so that it looked messed-up.  
  
"Don't scare me like that!" exclaimed Lily, hitting him furiously.  
  
James easily pinned her arms to her sides, and planted a kiss firmly on her lips.  
  
"Didn't mean to scare you," he said, something close to an apology, which Lily seemed to accept, for she kissed him back.  
  
"Good to see you looking normal," said Sirius. "Well, as normal as you'll ever look."  
  
"Oh, my God, it's time for class already!" exclaimed Lily, glancing at her watch. She grabbed her books. "Oh, where's my Arithmancy book?"  
  
"We missed lunch?" asked Sirius, crestfallen.  
  
In a few moments, everyone was heading out the door. They looked back at Remus and Hermione, who were sitting at the table, not getting ready at all.  
  
"Aren't you guys coming?" asked Lily, looking sternly at them.  
  
"Well, Rosemary can't teach without a voice, and who's going to stay with her?" asked Remus.  
  
"Well, I could -" started Sirius.  
  
"And I'm staying with her," added Remus pointedly.  
  
"All right," said James with a grin. "We'll bring up some food for you for dinner later."  
  
Lily and James, with Peter tagging along, headed down the hall. Sirius was halfway out the door with a hand on the doorknob.  
  
"See you later," he said. "And don't do anything I wouldn't do."  
  
"Is there anything you wouldn't do?" asked Remus.  
  
"Well, kissing Snape is one of them," said Sirius. "Who would? But I'm sure Rosemary wouldn't even think of kissing Snape, when she's got you to snog." And with that, he closed the door behind him.  
  
For Caiti, who has shown much more enthusiam than I thought anyone ever could. Thanks, girl!!!! No one's ever praised me that much!!! 


	18. Taken

To Katherine, Christian, Erin, and Caiti. Oh, and Edward, if he's been wondering. No, I am not making them 'take it to the next level'!!!! Godamnit it. I was going to, but my other readers have spoken. They're going to be something I think you guys have never heard of: INNOCENT. So, if u don't like it, screw you. You guys don't have to read my story. I, the author, have spoken. DEAL WITH IT. Sorry to be so b****y, but I have the whole story planned out already, and I really don't want to change it. And I love my story the way it is.   
  
Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 18: Taken  
  
"Let's get your voice back, shall we?" said Remus, opening a book. "Let's see, voice loss."  
  
Hermione, reached for a book, then started as if she suddenly remembered something. She started rummaging through the pile of books. Remus looked at her.  
  
"Are you looking for something?" he asked casually, totally unruffled.  
  
"The book," she mouthed. "Astronomy Tower," she pointed upwards to indicate the tower.  
  
She turned for the door, but Remus caught her wrist, still calmly sitting down.  
  
"Looking for this?" asked Remus, pulling out the time travel book from his robes.  
  
A hint of sadness flashed across her face.  
  
"Is it just me or are you a bit ... disappointed that I did remember to bring it?" he teased. "Because we could pretend like we did forget it, you know."  
  
Hermione's expression clearly told him that her mind was torn between his suggestion or the practicallity of keeping the book.  
  
"But since you'll be staying here, you mightn't need it, you know," he said, a teasing smirk on his lips.  
  
But she looked so much more than a little lost that he dropped his teasing demeanor and pulled her into his lap.  
  
"Don't worry, Rosemary. Everything's going to be all right. You have me. I have you. Nothing could go wrong for us."  
  
She gave him a look that clearly told him that she highly doubted his statement.  
  
"All right, a lot could go wrong for us, but what does that matter? We have each other."  
  
She rested her head on his shoulder, and absently turned the time travel book over and over in her hands. Somehow, the motion was very much like how she had wound her time turner in the first place. The motion set off a train of thoughts, going forward to the present. She remembered Ron and Harry's countenances very vividly; seven years of friendship can do that you know. Of course, during the last few weeks before she fell out of her time, things hadn't been great for the Golden Trio, but a few weeks worth of bad memories could never erase seven years of great ones.  
  
"Rosemary?" asked Remus, his voice sounding very far away.  
  
She started, dropping the book on the floor. After retrieving it, she looked at him expectantly.  
  
"Nothing," he said, looking away. Knowing that what he was going to say was something, she turned his head gently so that he would look at her. He faltered under her gaze.  
  
"It's just you looked, I don't know ..." he trailed off.  
  
She reached over to the table and wrote the word 'homesick?' on the corner of a parchment.  
  
"Yes," sighed Remus.  
  
'Does this convince you?' she wrote. Dropping the quill, she pulled his head toward him so that she could kiss him. He easily complied, and but after a few moments, reluctantly pulled away.  
  
"Rosemary?" he said.  
  
She looked at him worriedly.  
  
"Yes," he said.  
  
She gave him a puzzled look.  
  
"Yes, that did convince me. No more questions anymore. No more doubts," he said, bending down again to kiss her.  
  
Now, of course, you (the reader) may think - even expect - that Remus and Hermione were on the verge of taking their relationship to the next level. If you have assumed this, your conclusion would not have been ungrounded. But in forming this conclusion, you forgot one thing: this is Remus J. Lupin and Hermione Granger we are talking about here.  
  
But even a rather heated snog session was not out of bounds for the two, and that is exactly what they had.  
  
"That was.... nice," commented Remus rather breathlessly when they had finally stopped.   
  
Hermione nodded in agreement.  
  
~~~~~  
  
A few hours later, Hermione had fallen asleep on the sofa, but Remus was still faithfully reading to find out how they could get her voice back. But the words were starting to blur, and though he did not want to admit defeat, he knew that he would find no answer tonight.  
  
He was putting on his cloak to go out for a walk about the grounds when Hermione woke up. He smiled tiredly at her.  
  
"I found nothing," he told her solemnly. "I was going out for a walk. Would you like to come with me?"  
  
She smiled and nodded, also putting on her cloak. The grounds of Hogwarts was bathed in starlight and moonlight. As they circled the lake, Hermione noticed that he was gazing at the moon in deep thought. And for the first time, Hermione was glad that she could not speak, for she did not know what to say.  
  
But that moment was to be the last time she she thought her voice loss was a blessing.  
  
Out of nowhere, twi hooded and cloaked wizards jumped out at them. At first, Hermione thought they were Slytherins, but then she saw the Auror badge on their robes.  
  
"Say, what the-?" started Remus. But he was cut short when he was seized.  
  
"You are taken into the custody of the Ministry of Magic. If you don't resist, things will go better for you, werewolf."  
  
"Why? Does Dumbledore know about this?" Remus demanded.  
  
"Why?" mocked the Auror. "Because you're a werewolf, a danger to society. And Dumbledore has no control over the Ministry."  
  
Hermione fought her way to Remus.  
  
"It's okay, Rosemary," he said consolingly, as an Auror snapped handcuffs on. "I'll be okay. Just go up to the castle and tell Dumbledore what's happened. Where are you taking me anyway?" he asked the Aurors.  
  
"No one talks to you, you don't talk. Understand, werewolf?" asked the Auror, roughly shoving Remus. Without his hands for balance, Remus fell to the ground. Hermione dropped to her knees beside him in concern.  
  
"Get away from him, girlie," growled an Auror. He put a hand on Hermione's shoulder and threw her a few feet away.  
  
"Rosemary!" exclaimed Remus. "Don't you touch her, you evil bastard."  
  
Hermione fell hard on the ground. But as she got to her feet, she made up her mind in a trice. She plunged her hand into her pocket and whipped out her wand. No one was taking Remus away, not even fully-fledged Aurors. But even then, Hermione felt that there was something suspicious about the whole affair.  
  
With deadly calm, Hermione raised her wand and pointed it directly at the nearest Auror. A jet of ice blue hit him squarely in the chest. He fell to the ground, unconscious.  
  
"Vulnerable, weak little girls shouldn't play with dangerous spells," said a wizard, drawing his wand. "Now, because you have incapacitated my friend, you shall have to pay the consequences."  
  
"Expelliarmus!" mouthed Hermione.  
  
The spell did not work as well without her voice. The wand flew out of the man's hand, but it did not zoom to her. It lost heart about halfway and fell to the ground inbetween them. They both scrambled for it, and just as Hermione was about to close her hand around it, another Auror jumped out, armed with a thick tree limb, and struck her on the head. She fell to the ground immediately unconscious.  
  
"Rosemary!" yelled Remus in horror. "You idiots, she's only a girl."  
  
"A girl who was too in love with a werewolf for her own good," snarled the Auror, taking up his wand. "You," he told his partner. "Pick him up," he gestured towards their fallen comrade. "Wait till I tell the guys he was beat by a mudblood girl."  
  
The Auror who was speaking grabbed Remus's arm and forced him to his feet. Remus took one last, desperate glance toward Hermione before his captore apparated the both of them and his partner with the fallen one followed suit, leaving Hermione lying on the cold February grounds. 


	19. Odd Occurences

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 19: Odd Occurences  
  
"Where's Remus?" was the first thing that came out of Hermione's mouth when she regained consciousness three days later.  
  
The three at her bedside, Sirius, James and Lily, all started. It was early in the morning of February seventh, and they had dropped in to check on her   
  
"Rosemary! You're awake!" exclaimed Lily.  
  
"Where's Remus?" repeated Hermione.  
  
The other three exchanged nervous glances.  
  
"They didn't take him away, did they?" asked Hermione urgently. No answer. "Well, did they?"  
  
"Who's they?" asked James. "The gamekeeper just found you out cold when he was doing his rounds later that night. From the footsteps, we gathered that Remus and you went out and then there seemed to be some sort of scuffle. There were marks all over the place."  
  
"It wasn't the Slytherins, was it?" said Sirius angrily. "Because they've been acting awfully gleeful the past couple of days."  
  
"Are you telling me that you they did take him away?" said Hermione. "And you haven't found him?"  
  
"Get out! All of you!" exclaimed Madam Pomfrey as she came sweeping down the ward. "Why didn't you tell me she had woken up?" she demanded. "Now go on so I can do a check-up!"  
  
The three scooted out. "We'll come by later," promised Lily, squeezing Hermione's hand, though she looked sick with fear herself.  
  
~~~~~  
  
Later that day, Dumbledore came to visit her. Reluctantly, Madam Pomfrey let him in but warned him not to excite her patient too much. As he swept in with a troubled expression on his face, Hermione looked up at him expectantly.  
  
"My dear, I need to ask you what happened three days ago on February the fourth.  
  
"Well, it was about seven that evening, so classes were done but you the school was having dinner at the Great Hall. Remus and I went out for a walk when two wizards with Auror badges jumped us. They put handcuffs on Remus and said that he was no under the custody of the Ministry. They kept on calling him werewolf. I tried to stop them and I managed to incapacitate one of them. I was dueling with the other wizard when something hit me hard on the head. And that's all I remember."  
  
"And you do not believe the 'Aurors' were anyone from the school?"  
  
"They couldn't have been," said Hermione. "They were adults. Men."  
  
Dumbledore looked thoughtful for a moment. He considered her for a few moments before slowly asking:  
  
"I'm not sure whether they still exist during your time, but are you aware of a certain group of people called Death Eaters?"  
  
"Sadly, they still do exist," said Hermione. "They killed my parents."  
  
"I am very sorry indeed," said Dumbledore, looking extremely perturbed by this news. "So our efforts will have no effect in the near future."  
  
"The Order's efforts?" whispered Hermione. "Are you formed yet?"  
  
Dumbledore was startled. "You know about the Order?"  
  
"Yes, I lived - or will live - in the Order headquarters later on."  
  
Dumbledore was quiet again. He was quiet for some long that Hermione couldn't bear it any longer.  
  
"Please, what are you going to do to get Remus back? They could be doing anything to him right now. Experimenting, torturing."  
  
"I am very well aware of what they could be doing. I know what needs to be done. Right now, I need you to do something for me that may prove to be very hard to do during the next couple of days."  
  
"What? Anything."  
  
"I am going to put all my efforts into finding out where Remus is. I need you to promise me that you will not try to find Remus on your own. I don't know anything of how Death Eaters are in the future, but I know that they are dangerous. Please have faith in me that I will bring Remus back."  
  
"Of course, Professor," said Hermione, who hadn't had any trouble in trusting him in the future and certainly not now.  
  
He smiled warmly yet sadly at her. He gave her shoulder a reassuring pat before sweeping out of the ward, a determined expression on his face.  
  
Hermione sighed sadly. Hours of quiet and thought lay ahead of her, and she played with the forever-existant what ifs that dwell in people's minds. What if Remus was being tortured or being experimented upon this moment? What if he was even, though she cursed herself for thinking it, dead? Then, the ultimate question that had been nagging at her since she fell backwards in time: Would any of this had happened if she hadn't been so careless with that stupid timeturner?  
  
"You can't blame yourself for what happened to Remus," said a quiet voice.  
  
She started, unaware that someone had been there. She looked to see James at the foot of her bed.  
  
"I guess," she said. "But you've got to admit. It's hard not to blame yourself for what happens to someone."  
  
"I guess," he conceded. "But it won't be any better if you worry yourself sick."  
  
"I suppose," she sighed. She looked up at him and surpisingly, a smile crept onto her face.  
  
"You know, you're exactly like Har -" she paused. "Someone I know."  
  
"Would I know them?" he asked, glad to see her smiling.  
  
"I think you will know him, to be more correct."  
  
~~~~~  
  
The next few days that passed were a blur for Hermione. She got up and helped teach ‚harms everyday, but she did it as if in a trance. Her thoughts dwelled constantly on Remus and where he could possibly be right now. Because most of the students in the school did not know her well, they did not notice, but Lily and the Marauders noticed and worried about her a lot, which only made their loads heavier, worrying about Hermione and worrying about Remus twice as much.  
  
"Will you look at her?" asked Lily. "I'm worried."  
  
The Seventh Year Gryffindors were all in Charms. Professor Flitwick was lecturing and Lily ought to have been taking notes, but the sight of their absent-minded teacher's aide kept distracting her.  
  
"She doesn't laugh at anything I say," said Sirius sadly.  
  
"Well, maybeshe's just being sensible," shot Lily.  
  
Sirius scowled at his best friend's girlfriend.  
  
"And she hardly eats anything," added James.  
  
"Maybe she's on a diet," said Peter, at a weak attempt at a joke.  
  
The three ignored him.  
  
"At night she never sleeps peacefully," Lily told them. "She's always tossing and turning. Perhaps we should ask Madam Pomfrey for a sleeping draught."  
  
The Marauders had no more time to discuss anything for the bell rang. They packed up their stuff and tried to get to the front of the room, but too many Gryffindors were heading the opposite way.   
  
"See you at dinner, Rosemary!" called Lily as she was going out the door. "And I want to see you there!"  
  
James and Sirius glanced back at her. They were sure she hadn't heard Lily.  
  
"She's not going to be there," said Sirus surely.  
  
~~~~~  
  
Sure enough, when the four entered the Great Hall that evening, Hermione was nowhere to be seen. Frowning, Lily took her seat inbetween Sirius and James. For a few minutes, she stabbed at her food, before throwing down her napkin and abruptly standing up.  
  
"Where are you going?" asked James.  
  
"I'm going to look for her and force her to come down and eat," she said resolutely. "And if you cared for her so much as you've been letting on the past few days, you'd go with me."  
  
She put her hands on her hips and watched James and Sirius slowly put down their forks and painfully push away their plates. They got up and slowly backed away from their dinner.  
  
"Oh, come on," she said impatiently, grabbing their arms and steering them toward the door.  
  
"Hey, wait," said Sirius. "Isn't Peter coming?"  
  
They all turned to Peter who was still eating, practically stuffing his face. He looked at them sheepishly.  
  
"I think I'd rather finish my supper, thanks," he said.  
  
Sirius and James looked at him disgustedly, and even Lily couldn't keep a look of distaste from her features.  
  
"Never mind," said Lily briskly, heading for the door. "We've got more important things at hand.  
  
"Why do you care for her so much?" asked Sirius as they headed for the library.  
  
Lily raised an eyebrow. "Are you telling me you don't care for her?"  
  
"No! I'm just wondering what makes us so concerned for her? I mean, we've been together for seven years so it's just natural that we all care for each other, but why her? We've known her for ten days and yet we treat her like we've known her for years. I don't know, never mind."  
  
"Well, you do have a point," said Lily slowly. "But I don't know the answer. I guess we can't help but trust her. Though we've only known her for a little more than a week, it feels like we know her already. Besides, I connect with her. She's awfully clever." Lily's eyes swept the study tables in the library. "Oh, she's not in here," she said. "Let's try my dorm."  
  
~~~~~  
  
Hermione had been grading papers in the Charms classroom. Well, if grading papers meant not reading a word on the papers in front of her. Though her eyes stared at the words in front of her, she never read a single word. After realizing that she had been doing nothing for several hours, she decided to got to Lily's dorm even though she knew that the Marauders would scold her afterwards for not eating.   
  
As she walked down the Heads' Corridor, she felt a sudden wave of a fatigue. It was an odd feeling, like she was falling backwards and forwards alternately. Instinctively, she reached out for anything to steady her. Her hand grazed a porcelain vase that toppled over the hallway table it stood on, and both she and the vase fell to the floor.  
  
~~~~~  
  
The Marauders and Lily were just about to turn into the Heads' Corridor when they heard the crash of the vase smashing into a million pieces. Hurrying around the corner, the others saw Hermione's form on the ground. They hurried to her, but when Lily reached out to touch her, Hermione disappeared!  
  
But Lily had barely time to gasp before Hermione reappeared in exactly the same position. They all stared at her, totally bewildered. She flickered a couple of times before their eyes.  
  
"What's happening?" said James.  
  
"I don't know," whispered Lily, looking absolutely petrified.  
  
Sirius knelt down next to Hermione. Recklessly, he grabbed her wrist just before she vanished. He saw Lily and James vanish for a moment, but he and Hermione remained. They were in the same corridor, except it looked different. The shards of glass had vanished as well as the hallway table. The paintings on the wall were different, rearranged. The window at the end of the hallway showed that it was daytime, but it had been dark out.  
  
"Where'd they go?" asked Lily frantically.  
  
Before James could answer, Sirius and Hermione appeared again. For minutes, no one moved, wondering whether the pair would vanish again. Minutes passed and nothing happened. Slowly, Sirius let out his breath, not even knowing he had been holding it.  
  
"What happened?" asked Lily.  
  
"I don't know," said Sirius truthfully. "We vanished for a moment, but we were right here. Except it looked like another time. It was still light out. Then we reappeared. I really don't know what happened."  
  
The sound of hundreds of students making their way up the stairs brought them back to the situation at hand.  
  
"Bring her into the room, Sirius, and put her on the bed," said Lily, taking control of the problem. "James, go for Madam Pomfrey. I don't know what's wrong with her, but I'm sure it's not normal."  
  
Wordlessly, the boys followed her instructions. With a wave of her wand, Lily vanished the pieces of glass. She stepped up onto the place where Hermione had lain. She stood there for a few moments, wondering if the same thing would happen to her. She remained where she was. Curious but extremely disturbed, she went into her dorm, closing the door behind her before a hundred or so carefree students rumbled past.  
  
~~~~~  
  
A/N: Thanks for all of your support guys! I never thought my story would be read, much less appreciated by so many! This story is obviously very long already, and it promises to be even longer. I don't know if this is good news or bad news to some of you, but I hope that you will continue to read my story! 


	20. Sirius Knows

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 20: Sirius Knows  
  
"I don't know," said Madam Pomfrey, after examining Hermione. "I'm not sure what's wrong with her. She's probably worried herself sick about young Lupin, but that does not explain the vanishing."  
  
Hermione hadn't vanished since when Sirius went with her, but the three had ensured that no detail had been left out when they told Madam Pomfrey their tale.  
  
"I believe I can explain it," said a voice in the doorway.  
  
They all turned to see Professor Dumbledore. He strode into the room with a grim look on her face.  
  
"I believe you are all familiar with the fact that Rosemary is from the future?" They all nodded vehemently. "Well, naturally, going back in time should only be done in small amounts, like hours or days at the most. Naturally, someone could just live out the extra hours or days they went back to get back to the present. But she went back twenty years. She cannot live out her time here without making a change in her appearance in the very least in her present time. Her body is starting to feel the effects of being in the wrong time. The main idea is that the present is calling her, but she can't go back to her time without that time-turner or at least another way of time travel."  
  
"So when she vanished, she was in the future for a moment?" asked Lily disbelievingly.  
  
"Well, it was the present for her," said Dumbledore. "But, yes. You are correct."  
  
Lily nodded, but she couldn't help keeping the look of skepticism from her face.   
  
"If you don't believe me, Miss Evans, I believe I can prove it to you. Mr. Black, can I see your watch for a moment?"  
  
"Of course," said Sirius, but he looked confused. He handed it over to Dumbledore.  
  
"I assume you were wearing this when you vanished with Miss Gardener?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Please look her you three," he said, holding out the wristwatch. "You, too, Poppy, if you wish." They all leant in and looked at the watch. It was about 7:30pm. "Look at the date right beside the fifteen minute sign." They squinted and what they saw made Lily and Madam Pomfrey gasp. The date was July 2, 1998.  
  
"Sirius had the date almost twenty years off," said James with a shrug. "He's a bright one."  
  
"I did not!" said Sirius defiantly.  
  
Dumbledore allowed himself a small smile. "Do not underestimate your friend, Mr. Potter," said Dumbledore. "I am positive that this date was on February 12, 1978, before Sirius decided to touch accompany Rosemary on her little flicker back to the future, but that not matter how little a time he spent in the future, it set off his watch. Do any of you remember what date Rosemary said it was before she fell into our time?"  
  
The three thought hard for a moment. "July second, 1998," said James finally. "I remember."  
  
"Exactly. Now, if I am correct, she won't 'flicker' anymore, but she may be subject to fainting spells. Sirius, do you remember the feeling of motion you felt when you accompanied her to the future?"  
  
Sirius thought hard. "Yes," he said slowly. "It was kind of like I was moving forward very fast."  
  
"Exactly. Now, Rosemary will get that feeling, of falling forward then backwards, at some points. The body and mind can't take it, so it merely blacks out. In other words, she'll be subject to dizzy spells. I need the three of you make sure someone is with her at all times. The sooner she gets back to her time, the better. Good day to you all. Poppy, could you leave them with a reviving potion that they can administer to Rosemary in case she faints again?"  
  
The nurse nodded and Dumbledore tiredly headed for the door. The three couldn't help but notice how old and tired and weary the Headmaster looked these days.  
  
"What about Remus?" asked Lily finally, unable to restrain herself. "Have you found out anything about him?"  
  
"I think I am getting very close to the bottom of this horrible scheme. They took Remus to experiment on him because of his lycanthropy. As far as I know, I am almost positive he is safe and untouched. He will be back in no time. Please ensure Rosemary that he is all right when she wakes up."  
  
With a nod of his head, he swept from the room.  
  
"I must be going too," said Madam Pomfrey. "Don't expect her to wake up until tomorrow morning. I'll send over some of that reviving potion with Peter tonight. He's in the hospital with a sore stomach." She bustled off.  
  
"At least Remus is all right," said Lily finally, after a very awkward silence. "Dumbledore should be able to get him back soon."  
  
"He won't be all right if he does come back and finds Rosemary gone," said Sirius glumly. "Dumbledore will be able to find a way to get her back to her time."  
  
The voicing of this problem did indeed put a mood dampener on the three. At this time, Peter came strolling in with the reviving potion.  
  
"Here you go," he said, putting down six vials of clear potion on the table. "Pomfrey says one vial should do it every time."  
  
"Thanks, Peter," said Lily. "I'm going for a walk," she finally announced. "James, want to come with me?"  
  
"Sure," he said, helping her to put her cloak on and throwing on his own.  
  
"Don't get ambushed," said Peter, laughing weakly at his horrible joke.  
  
Lily and James ignored him. "We'll be back in a few minutes, Sirius," she said. "Can you keep a watch on Rosemary until then?"  
  
"Sure," he promised.  
  
"I've gotta go to the library," said Peter. "Davey Gudgeon has something he wants to show me."  
  
"Yeah, sure," said Sirius, glaring at Peter. Wormtail was out the door before he spoke again. "And lay off the jokes, Wormtail. There are some people who care for Rosemary and Remus, even if you're not one of them."  
  
Peter turned to say something, but Sirius raised his wand and slammed and sealed the door shut before Peter could even get the words out.  
  
Sighing heavily, Sirius sat down at the table and absentmindedly picked up a vial. But what he saw lying on the table made him almost drop the vial. It was the book he had taken from the library. He opened it and, as if the book knew what he was thinking of, the book fell to a section devoted on methods of getting back to the present for a victim of time-travel.  
  
He glanced over the list of ways and saw that they were not that difficult. Angrily, he shut the book. With a simple spell, Rosemary could be back in the present and his best friend's happiness would be gone with that spell. And he knew that if anyone deserved to be happy, it was Remus Lupin.  
  
He knew it was only a matter of time before Dumbledore would find out. He also knew that this was the only book in the whole library on time-travel. (a/n: its just a new form of magic, after all.) It didn't take a mind like his to figure that Madam Pince would trace the book to him.  
  
In a second, he knew what he had to do. He knew that Remus had to be happy. He knew that Rosemary was the key to Remus's happiness. He knew that both their happiness was in his hands this moment, literally. He knew that what he was about to do was reckless. He knew it might turn out horrible in the long run. But he also knew that reckless was practically his middle name.  
  
Taking a deep breath, he stood in front of the fire with the book in his hand. He took a glance at Rosemary's sleeping form, and steeled his will. He threw the book in the fire, and stepped back to watch the last hindrance of their happiness burn away slowly. But he was denied this when the red flames suddenly shot emerald. He gave a startled, almost girlish shriek, and jumped back. When the fire turned back to its normal orange-red hue, he looked closely and saw that the book was gone.  
  
He let out his breath. He didn't know what the consequences of what he just did. He didn't know if he was right, but he knew that he wasn't entirely be wrong either. But, regardless of anything else, he knew that what he had done was irreversible and he knew that all he could do was hope that nothing bad would come of it.  
  
~~~~~  
  
A/N: I know that all that stuff was a little confusing, but that was the way it was meant to be. Call it artistic writing! :) 


	21. Roses and Remus

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 21: Roses and Remus  
  
The next morning, Hermione woke up early in the morning, even before Lily. Glancing at the clock, she saw it was 4 o'clock in the morning. Despite the many hours of sleep she had just had, she felt an odd type of exhaustion, like jet lag.  
  
Quietly, she walked over to the window. The sky was just starting to brighten, but she could already tell that it was going to be a gloomy kind of day. The landscape was the same of the sky: a dull gray. The snow wasn't like the fresh, crisp white flakes that fall during the holidays. What was on the ground now was tired-looking, and had slightly melted into a soggy kind of mess, much like Hermione's world right now.  
  
She sat there for three hours, not noticing that time was really going by. Time. She hated it now. It was the source of all troubles. It always ran out just when you needed it the most, and you could never get it back once it passed. And through this whole ordeal, she felt something more strongly than she had ever felt before, something that she should have learned in the third year. Messing with time was something she had never got involved with.  
  
But if she hadn't messed with time, she wouldn't have met and fallen in love with the younger Remus Lupin. But then he mightn't have gone missing and God knows what else. Her thoughts went around in circles until she could bear it no more. She abruptly got up and experienced what at first felt like a head rush. But it wouldn't stop. Suddenly, a translucent Harry appeared out of nowhere.  
  
"Hermione, where are you?" he said, his voice oddly echoing and distant.  
  
She tried to answer, but as hard as she tried, she couldn't make her words heard.  
  
"Choose me."  
  
Suddenly, Ron appeared right next to Harry. He too was translucent.  
  
"No, choose me. I swear I've loved you since the fourth year. He just wants someone to take Sirius's place."  
  
"How could you say that!" demanded Harry, turning towards Ron. "You're the one she always argues with! Why do you think she would choose you?"  
  
"And why would she choose a tormented, disturbed boy who happens to kill everyone who loves him?"  
  
"Say that again?" said Harry dangerously.  
  
"You heard me right," said Ron, drawomg his wand.  
  
"No!" shrieked Hermione, her voice sounding for the first time.  
  
"Stay out of this, Hermione," said Harry, setting up an invisible barricade to keep her away.  
  
"This is for you, Hermione," said Ron.  
  
"No!" she said again. "I'm worth this! I'm not equal to your friendship! I won't let you hurt each other!"  
  
"I'm afraid you have no choice, Hermione," said Ron.  
  
"But you're worth everything," said Harry. "More than you'll ever know."  
  
They both raised their wands and two jets of green light shot out hitting both of them squarely in the chest. They fell to the floor, eyes wide open and empty.  
  
"Nooo!" she screamed again.  
  
The mist translucency of the whole scene disappeared as quickly as it came. It took a minute for her to realize that Harry and Ron's bodies weren't lying on the floor in front of her. It took even longer for her breathing to return to normal. Slowly, she got to her feet. Somehow she had ended up on her knees.  
  
She sighed as she sat down at the window again. This was getting too bizzare for her to handle.  
  
~~~~~  
  
When Lily woke up, Hermione acted as normal as she could. She put up an almost convincing role until the boys came in.  
  
"A rose for the Lily," said James as he burst in and handed his girlfriend a rose.  
  
"And a rose for the Rosemary," said Sirius, handing Hermione one.  
  
"And to what occasion may we attribute these lovely red roses?" asked Hermione.  
  
"Does a boyfriend need an occasion to give his girlfriend a flower?" asked James.  
  
"And does a guy need an occasion to give his... best friend's girlfriend ... erm, you know what I mean," said Sirius. "It's the thought that counts."  
  
"And you just happened to come across these?" asked Lily.  
  
"Of course!" exclaimed James and Sirius hurriedly, glancing at each other.  
  
"It's not exactly blooming time right now," she added, nodding toward the open window.  
  
The boys looked at each nervously.  
  
"Well, never mind that, lovely ladies," said James. "Like Padfoot said, it's the thought that counts."  
  
Peter came ambling in at this time, holding a rose himself. "Who do you think I should give mine to?" he asked. He looked at Lily and Hermione. "Oh, they got you already."  
  
"Ah, look at the time," said Sirius loudly. "Just enough time to get a spot of breakfast before classes."  
  
"Where'd you get those roses, Peter?" asked Lily sweetly.  
  
"All the guys get them," he said, "to give to the girl he wants to go with him to the Valentine's Day Dance."  
  
"Oh," said Lily. But instead of looking at James, she looked at Hermione along with Sirius and James.  
  
Hermione fought hard to keep her expression the same. She held the rose out to Sirius.  
  
"You know I can't go with you, Sirius," she said.  
  
"No, I know!" said Sirius. "It was meant merely as a gift, just a gift. I'd never dream of .... you know I wouldn't."  
  
"But don't you need to give it to another deserving girl?" asked Hermione.  
  
"Nah," said Sirius carelessly. "I'm pretty sure that there'll be some girl willing to dance with me."  
  
"Yeah, I'm sure there'll be a million," said James, trying to lighten the mood. "You don't need to worry about Sirius, Rosemary. He always has a line of girls waiting for the next dance."  
  
She laughed as convincingly as she could. "I can imagine. Thanks, Sirius."  
  
"No problem. Now, about breakfast..."  
  
"Rosemary?" said Peter.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"If you're not going with Sirius, and Remus isn't here, do you want to go with me?"  
  
Hermione was saved from answering this question by Sirius.  
  
"How dare you ask her that!" thundered Sirius. "How inconsiderate can you be, Wormtail!! You're -!"  
  
Hermione laid a placating hand on Sirius's arm.  
  
"It's okay," she whispered. "Thanks, but no thanks, Peter. I...I don't think I'm going to the dance at all."  
  
"Oh, okay," said Peter. "Hmm, who else?"  
  
"But, Rosemary, you've got to go!" Lily objected.   
  
Hermione smiled sadly. "I can't, Lily. I really can't."  
  
Lily opened her mouth but closed it again, knowing it would quite be pointless to argue.  
  
"Go on and have your breakfast, boys," said Hermione. "You too, Lily."  
  
"All right!" agreed James loudly.   
  
"God, I'm starving," said Sirius.  
  
Loudly, they clattered out. Lily, however, lagged behind.  
  
"I'm not that hungry," she said. But her growling stomach betrayed her. Hermione raised an eyebrow. "I - I can't leave you alone, Rosemary. I promised Dumbledore..."  
  
"And why not?" asked Hermione, slightly annoyed. "I won't do anything rash, I swear."  
  
"No, it's not that. It's just - do you remember what happened yesterday?"  
  
Hermione thought for a moment. "I can't really recall..."  
  
Lily explained everything that had happened from when they saw her lying in the hall to Dumbledore's explanation of events.  
  
"If you faint again, no one will be here with you," said Lily.  
  
"And what do you plan to do when you have to go to class today?" asked Hermione. "There's no Charms today, but you've still got classes."  
  
"I don't know," said Lily slowly.  
  
"Don't worry about me. I don't feel in the least bit dizzy like I did yesterday. I think I'll be fine."  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
"Positive."  
  
In the end, Lily did go have breakfast after Hermione reassured her ten times over that at the first symptoms of dizzyness, she would call for some help.  
  
For the first few minutes after Lily left, Hermione restlessly moved around the room. She sat down at the window and opened it wide. A cool, crisp wind blew in. But she hardly noticed as she stared at the rose Sirius had given her. The Valentine's Day Dance. She had forgotten all about it.  
  
It took her a few of hours to notice that the wind that had been blowing steadily into the room had not only put out the fire, but turned the room ice cold. She set the rose down on the windowsill and got up to light the fire again. But she sat back down almost immediately, realizing that she didn't care if it started to snow in the room.  
  
She didn't see the rose fall out the window, gently cushioned by the wind, all the way down to the ground. She didn't see someone pick up the rose and look up at her. The figure took in her image: her curls were dancing over her face, her face had a faraway, wistful expression. The figure smiled and walked around to the front of the castle and slipped in.  
  
The figure went up seven floors to the Heads' Corridor. Quietly, the figure entered the Head Girl's room, so quietly that Hermione did hear anyone come into the room.  
  
Part of the reason she was oblivious to the fact that she was no longer alone was that she had just noticed that the rose had fallen out the window. Leaning out the window she looked down and didn't see a speck of red among the blanket of grey slush. What she did see was a couple of footsteps right below her window.  
  
"Looking for this?" asked the figure.  
  
Hermione whipped around to behold Remus Lupin.   
  
He only saw the elated look on her face for a second, because the next she was hugging him, her face buried in his chest.  
  
"Oh, my God! It's you, it's really you!"  
  
After a few minutes, she pulled away, a happy smile on her face that would not be supressed.  
  
"Where did those awfule men take you?" she demanded. "Are you all right?"  
  
"I'm fine," he reassured her. He took her hands into his and was shocked at how icy cold they were. "You haven't been sitting at that window all day, have you?" he demanded.  
  
Her reverted eyes answered well enough for him. He closed the window and led her over to the couch rubbing her cold hands, colder than his. "I'm not worth this, Rosemary."  
  
"Where did they take you?" she persisted.  
  
"They took me to -" he shuddered. "I was in Azkaban."  
  
"Azkaban?" she whispered in disbelief. "Why in the hell did they take you there?"  
  
"I never found out. They were Death Eaters . Have you - you've heard about them before haven't you?" She nodded. "I thin they were going to test on me or something like that, because - because of my lycanthropy. Dumbledore I think intervened because they didn't do anything. It's a good thing they let me go today, too. Or they would have had a full-fledged werewolf on their hands."  
  
"How'd you get here?" she asked.  
  
"They Apparated me to the gate then left. I don't know why they didn't do anything to me."  
  
''I don't care, as long as you're here, safe," she declared, pulling him in to kiss him.  
  
"Now I remember the reason I wanted to come back," he teased, after they had broken apart for breath.  
  
"Be quiet, you," she admonished, blushing. "But I guess I shall allow it since you've just come back."  
  
"So where'd you get the rose from? Or should I say who?" asked Remus. "But no need to ask there. I'll take a wild guess and say Sirius."  
  
"And you'd be right," she said. "But he didn't ask me to the dance. Peter was the one who asked me later on."  
  
"Peter never knows what's the right time to say or do anything, you know," he said. "But, if you'll disregard his request, I have one to reask." He held out the rose. "You're going to the dance with me, aren't you."  
  
"Do you even have to ask?" she asked.  
  
She leaned in to kiss him again, but burst out laughing halfway. He was confused at first, but he soon saw the source of her amusement.  
  
The rose he had been offering her was hanging limply in his hand, crushed by them during their previous kissing. He laughed as well, but she was quite a hopeless case. It wasn't terribly funny, but she hadn't laughed in such a long time that it was relieving to laugh her heart out.  
  
"God, it's good to be back," he mused.  
  
~~~~~  
  
A/N: Rather long chapter, I know. But I hope you loved it! Read and review, I beg, faithful readers. I think my story's getting too long for others to start reading, so I thank all of you who haven't lost faith or interest in my story yet. It is rather long already, and I am sad yet happy to tell you we are about HALF way through. Perhaps more.  
  
~InkFairy. 


	22. Full Moon

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 22: Full Moon  
  
They spent a few hours just together, wishing the time could stop right now. Finally, glancing through the window, Remus ascertained that he could stay no longer.  
  
"Tonight," he stated, taking a deep breath. "Tonight's the full moon."  
  
A disappointed look flashed across her face. "I'll stay with you," she offered.  
  
"Are you crazy?" he asked.  
  
She mentally slapped herself. Of course there was no Wolfsbane Potion yet.  
  
"Sorry, it's just that in my time, you could have drank a potion that would have allowed you to keep your mind when you transform. But never mind that. I'll meet you at the base of the Whomping Willow."  
  
"I won't be going in for another hour, but I think I ought to tell Dumbledore that I'm back and all that happened," he said.  
  
"Yes, you'd better. You should also drop by the Great Hall. You're sure to create quite an uproar, at least at a certain end of the Gryffindor Table."  
  
"I think I will," he got up. "Seven o'clock tonight at the base of the Whomping Willow," he reminded her. "That is, if you really want to."  
  
"I do," she smiled. "I don't care that you're a werewolf, Remus. I'm not like everyone else."  
  
"Anyone can see that."  
  
~~~~~  
  
He reached the Great Hall, and the noise emitting from it told him that supper was in full swing. Slipping through the great oak doors, he walked casually but discreetly to the Gryffindor Table. No one else noticed him; he doubted whether anyone else had even noticed he was gone. He walked down the Great Hall, no heads turned to look at him, except for that of Albus Dumbledore who even got up. Giving the old professor a reassuring smile, he took his seat beside Sirius.  
  
"That seat's not yours to take..." but Sirius never finished that sentence. He glanced up and saw a smiling Remus Lupin sitting right next to him.  
  
He, Lily, James, and Peter stared at him dumbstruck.  
  
"Hello. I hope someone will let me copy their notes from all the classes I missed," he said casually.  
  
"How in the hell can you think about notes?" said Sirius in disbelief as he embraced Remus. (A/N: in a brotherly way!)  
  
"Where have you been all this time?" demanded Lily. "You've worried all of us spare, not to mention Rosemary."  
  
"I've already talked to her," he said. "I was taken to Azkaban....." He told his tale in a few, simple sentences.  
  
"...and they just let me go....  
  
He stopped and all of them noticed the sudden quite that settled over all in the hall. He looked behind him and saw Albus Dumbledore standing directly behind him.  
  
"My dear boy, welcome back," was the first thing Dumbledore said.  
  
"It's good to be back, Headmaster."  
  
"I would very much like to have a word with you in my office," he said.  
  
"Of course," said Remus, hurriedly getting up.  
  
"And I want Madam Pomfrey to do a simple check-up. You've been quite through an ordeal."  
  
"I feel fine, Headmaster."  
  
Dumbledore considered him for a moment. "Please go wait in my office. I won't be long, but if I am delayed and night falls before I can come, by all means you may leave."  
  
The headmaster winked at Remus before sweeping back to the Great Hall.  
  
"I'll go with you," offered Sirius readily.  
  
They both walked briskly out of the Great Hall. Well, Remus did. Sirius always moved with that easy, flowing grace that made him look like he owned the school. Well, he did in a manner of speaking. He owned half the hearts in Hogwarts. And the other half? Well, let's just say that the other half of the girls at Hogwarts were green with envy because of Lily Evans and Rosemary Gardener.  
  
"It's really good to have you back," said Sirius as they climbed the white marble staircase.  
  
"It is good to be back, but I doubt that's why you wanted to come with me to Dumbledore's office," said Remus, looking at his best friend.  
  
"Yes. It's just this: The whole time you were missing, we were all worried about you. Me, Lily, James, especially Rosemary. But not Peter. I mean, I know Peter doesn't understand how to act under certain situations, but one of his best friends were missing and he hardly spared a frown. He kept making these sick jokes that made me want to pound him into dust, and he had the insensitivity to ask Rosemary to the dance. Can you imagine that?"  
  
Remus was rather taken aback by Sirius's speech.  
  
"You just said a great deal of words I didn't know you knew," said Remus, trying to make the matter light. "You've got to excuse Peter. He always says the wrong things at the wrong times. And maybe I don't really mean that much to him? Who knows? It really shouldn't bother you that much."  
  
"I dunno. It just got to me," shrugged Sirius.  
  
They reached the entrance to Dumbledore's office. Remus turned and gripped Sirius's shoulder.  
  
"Thanks for being a great friend," said Remus.  
  
"And there's something else," said Sirius quietly. Remus had never seen such indecisiveness displayed on Sirius's features.  
  
"What is it?" asked Remus worriedly.  
  
"I burned the book," said Sirius.  
  
"What book?"  
  
"The time-turner book. I don't know why I did it. I thought that maybe they would find a way for Rosemary to get back to her time, and I wanted her to stay her...for you. So I burned it. Tell me that what I did was right."  
  
It was Sirius's pleading tone in his last statement that made Remus look at him sharply.  
  
"Of course, Sirius," said Remus, crossing his fingers behind his back. "When have you ever been wrong?"  
  
"Many times," sighed Sirius. "Thanks, Remus."  
  
He was halfway down the hall when he turned back to look at his best friend.  
  
"And I know you crossed your fingers," he said before continuing on his way.  
  
Remus sighed. He knew that Sirius had only been doing what he thought was best, but was it right? That was the question.  
  
"Reeses pieces," said Remus glumly to the gargoyle. (A/N: Remember the movie ET?)  
  
~~~~~  
  
"Do you have any idea why they took you?" Dumbledore asked.  
  
"I assumed they wanted to test on me because of my lycanthropy. But they didn't."  
  
"I bargained with them," revealed Dumbledore. "But I wasn't sure they would follow through with their promises. I'm glad they did. But why did they take you to Azkaban?"  
  
"The Dementors," whispered Remus, shuddering. "They're the Death Eater's allies."  
  
Dumbledore looked at him sharply. "What? This is very disturbing news indeed." He started pacing. "And the Ministry has just put their most dangerous prisoners in the hands of these - these fiends." He sighed and came to a stop in front of Remus. "Now, I have to ask you whether is there was anything else you found out during your abduction."  
  
Remus shook his head. "I wish I could be of more help, but they kept in isolation during the whole time. There was only a dementor guarding my cell and I met no one else."  
  
Dumbledore nodded. "You may go, Remus."  
  
Remus put a hand to the door but turned to look at the Headmaster.  
  
"They're getting strong aren't they?" he asked quietly.  
  
"Who?"  
  
"The Death Eaters. They're gaining more power."  
  
Dumbledore sighed heavily. "I have been ordered by the Ministry not to let on anything to the students, and I think that your parents may not like me telling this, but yes, Remus. Muggle killings have escalated noticeably. Wizards and witches are disappearing every day. The Minstry is in chaos."  
  
Remus gulped. He hadn't known it was that bad. It was hard to imagine that such horrible things were happening outside the safe confines of Hogwarts.  
  
"Please don't let the other students know, Remus. I won't have my school live in utter fear."  
  
Remus nodded. "I understand, Headmaster."  
  
~~~~~  
  
Hermione was in Lily's room, but the Marauders hadn't come up yet. She was brushing her hair to give it an extra shine. She even applied some blush to her rather pale cheeks.  
  
"You're being silly, Hermione Granger," she told herself seriously, though she was smiling. "Falling in love with your professor! It's inconceiveable!"  
  
She sighed happily. Her eyes rested upon Lily's mascara.  
  
"Why not?" she asked herself.  
  
She took up the mascara and was about to apply it when a ticking sound filled her ears. An annoyed look crossed her lovely features. She glanced at the grandfather clock in the corner of the room. She had never noticed how loud the clock was. But it wasn't the clock that was ticking.  
  
The ticking sound was starting to hurt her eardrums. It was pounding in her ears. (A/N: Have any of you read the Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe? Well, she's not going crazy, but same idea) She glanced at the clock again, and gasped to see that it was was no longer in its corner. It was gliding towards her. It was towering over her. It was going to swallow her alive. (A/N: It sounds rather stupid doesnt it?) She fell off the chair in a faint, the mascara tube rolled all the way across the room to the clock, which still stood in its corner.   
  
~~~~~  
  
Remus headed for the Infirmary. Madam Pomfrey always requested that he come in before he went to the Shrieking Shack. She took him into her office and handed him a bar of chocolate.  
  
"Eat this, dear," she said. "Believe me, you'll feel better."  
  
He didn't need help to feel happy. He was back with his friends and he would be meeting Rosemary in a few minutes. Wondering how in the world a bar of chocolate would make him feel any better than how he felt right now, he nevertheless took a big bite of chocolate.  
  
He felt as though someone had just given him a good shot of energy. He hadn't even noticed how tired he had felt.  
  
"Thanks, Madam Pomfrey," he said, finishing the chocolate.  
  
She looked out the window. "Night's fallen," she informed him. "We should get you to the Willow."  
  
He nodded and she started pulling on her cloak.  
  
"Madam Pomfrey," he said. "Rosemary's meeting me at the base of the Willow."  
  
She looked at him sternly. "She knows then?"  
  
"Naturally."  
  
"All right then, but mind the moon, Lupin."  
  
"Of course," he promised. "I wouldn't put her in danger for the world."  
  
He walked briskly out onto the grounds of Hogwarts. The Willow looked unnaturally still. It was only flailing one or two limbs. There was no Rosemary in sight. He would not believe it at first. She had promised him. Perhaps she was late? He wondered if he dared wait another minute.  
  
You can't fool yourself, Remus told himself sternly. She doesn't want to meet you right before you transform into a great beast.  
  
Heaving a great sigh, Remus took a stick and prodded the knot. The tree froze and he slipped into the tunnel, feeling as though his heart was breaking. 


	23. Preparations

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 23: Preparations  
  
The next morning, Remus emerged from the base of the Whomping Willow. He was exhausted. Well, he was always exhausted after a transformation. The sun was just creeping up the sky. He trudged up to the castle and slipped into the entrance hall. No one was up yet. No one ever was.  
  
He made his way up the marble staircase and through countless corridors and passages to the Heads' Corridor. Lily's door was not shut. Curiosity getting the better of him, Remus pushed it open a little further to take a peek, and he ran right into Madam Pomfrey.  
  
"Ah, Remus, you're back," she said briskly. "How was the transformation?"  
  
Remus shrugged. "Same as usual, I guess. Um, what are you doing here?"  
  
"It's that poor girl again," she sighed.  
  
"What?" asked Remus, confused.  
  
"I must hurry off to the Hospital Wing," she said, "Lily will tell you everything."  
  
He went into the room and his eyes alighted upon Hermione's sleeping form. She looked perfectly normal to him, if not a little pale. Lily was sitting beside her bed.  
  
"Lily, what's wrong?" demanded Remus, fear gripping his heart.  
  
She looked at him sadly. "It's Rosemary..." Lily filled him in on everything.  
  
"I knew something like this was going to happen," he said quietly when she had finished.  
  
She looked at him curiously. "You knew this was going to happen?"  
  
"No, I mean, I knew it wouldn't last ... couldn't last."  
  
Lily sighed heavily. Would nothing ever go normally in their lives?  
  
"Go on and get some sleep," said Remus. "I'll watch after her."  
  
"But aren't you tired?" she objected.  
  
"Yes, but I won't be able to get to sleep even if I tried," he answered truthfullly. "There's no sense in both of us missing sleep, though."  
  
But Lily was only able to get a couple hours of sleep before she needed to get up for the school day. As she bustled around, getting ready, she looked at Remus.  
  
"No change in status?" she asked solemnly.  
  
"None at all, but at least she looks somewhat peaceful."  
  
Lily nodded. She was halfway out the door when something struck her.  
  
"You're not attending classes today," she said. It wasn't a question, more of a statement really.  
  
"Well, you can't expect me to be able to concentrate in class anyway," he said. "I'd be too worried about her."  
  
"I suppose you're right. And someone ought to be with her when she wakes up." She had turned and had walked out before he called her back.  
  
"Lily?"  
  
"Yes, I'll let you copy my notes later, Lupin," she said resignedly.  
  
He smiled. "Thanks."  
  
~~~~~  
  
It was noontime by the time Hermione woke up. She kept her eyes shut for a while, enjoying the warmth of her bed. Suddenly, she remembered that she had promised Remus she'd meet him at the base of the Willow. Her eyes shot open, and she was temporarily blinded by the sunlight that flooded the room.  
  
Suddenly, she remembered that odd clock dream. Involuntarily, she looked at the clock just to make sure it was still in its place.  
  
Her eyes fell upon the dozing form of Remus. Compassion flooded her heart. God, he must be exhausted from last night's transformation. She reached out an arm and gently shook him awake.  
  
"Wha- Rosemary!"  
  
"Shh, I'm all right," she said soothingly. "And I'm also terribly sorry."  
  
"For what?" he asked incredulously.  
  
"I promised I'd meet you at the base of the Willow," she said solemnly.  
  
"Well, you had more than an excuse not to be there," he said. "Don't worry about it."  
  
She lay back down on her pillows and sighed heavily. "What trouble I'm in, all because of a stupid time-turner."  
  
"But we're in it together," said Remus, kneeling beside her bed and taking her hand. "That's got to count for something."  
  
She smiled at him. "More than you'll know," she said, with a little catch in her voice.  
  
He looked down at her, and was surprised to see tears gathering in her eyes. "Oh, Rosemary, don't..."  
  
But she did. Her sobs started off in a sort of laugh, so that Remus at first couldn't tell whether or not she was laughing or crying. But the tears he felt on his shoulder confirmed that it was the latter. In fact, one would say she was crying happy tears. (A/N: It sounds kind of stupid, I know.)  
  
After a few minutes, her shoulders stopped shaking but her head remained buried in his shoulder.  
  
"Are you all right?" he asked softly, putting a finger under her chin and tilting it up so that she looked at him.  
  
Hermione took the opportunity and kissed him. "Well, I have you, don't I? Of course I'm all right." She released herself from his grasp and said commandingly: "You must exhausted. Go and sleep, Remus. "  
  
"All right," he sighed.  
  
He walked over to the couch and started fixing the cushions. Hermione watched him interestedly. He threw himself on it and conjured a blanket to cover him.  
  
"Sweet dreams, my dear," he said, closing his eyes.  
  
She laughed. Harry and Ron never got around her orders and she was used to being followed. Well, technically, he was going to sleep. "Good ni - erm morning, Remus," she said, settling down on her pillows.  
  
But she was answered by a snore.  
  
~~~~~  
  
Around six in the afternoon, Remus was roughly shaken awake. He could sleep the whole day away after a transformation. It was Lily. She was flushed like she had been hurrying around, and had an excited air about her  
  
"Get on out of here, Remus!" she said, hurriedly. "You've got to get ready!"  
  
"Ready?" he asked confusedly. "Ready for what?"  
  
"The dance!" she exclaimed. "Don't tell me you've forgotten."  
  
"No, it's just that - is Rosemary well enough to go?"  
  
"Of course I am!" Hermione's voice floated out from the bathroom, her tone indignant. "I'll meet you in the entrance hall, Remus Lupin! Now, go!"  
  
"All right, all right!" he said, though he was grinning. "See you in fifteen minutes!"  
  
"Thirty!" she demanded.  
  
"Twenty!" he countered.  
  
"Get out and let us get ready!" exclaimed Lily. "We'll meet you in thirty minutes."  
  
Remus opened his mouth to contradict but Sirius, who was passing by, poked his head in the door.  
  
"You'd best let it rest, mate," he said. "Girls take a long time to get ready, and nothing, not even the end of the world would make them get ready in five minutes."  
  
"You should talk, Sirius," scoffed Lily. "You couldn't get ready in five minutes for all the gold in the world."  
  
Sirius opened his mouth indignantly.  
  
"You'd best let it rest, mate," said Remus teasingly. "Girls take a long time to get ready, but they're nothing compared to Sirius Black."  
  
"Shut it, you," Sirius said, pulling his friend out the door. "Who asked you, anyway?"  
  
~~~~~  
  
"They're gone," announced Lily, sitting down at her vanity and applying her make up. "Let me see what you look like, dear."  
  
The bathroom door opened and out stepped Hermione. Lily's mouth fell open at what was reflected on her mirror. Turning on her chair, she looked at Hermione.  
  
"You look gorgeous!" she complimented.  
  
Hermione was wearing one of Lily's dresses, a simple, pink dress, simple and sleek. It complimented her figure. Her hair was piled high on her head, a porcelain, ornamental flower just visible amid her soft curls. A faint blush crept onto her cheeks.  
  
"I can't look that good," she said.   
  
"You've got to see it to believe it," said Lily, getting up and offering her seat in front of the mirror.  
  
Looking at Lily skeptically, Hermione turned to look into the mirror and gasped. She had never, ever thought of herself as beautiful, but even she had to admit that she looked satisfactory tonight.  
  
"You don't even have to wear make up," said Lily. "In fact, don't. That way, you'll look natural. All you need is this."  
  
She held up a string of pearls. "You're wearing this."  
  
~~~~~  
  
Twenty minutes later, the Marauders were emerging one by one from the Head Boys room.  
  
"God, Sirius, why'd you have to sit on Lily's corsage?" James yelled at Sirius, who was still in the room, while trying to perk up a rather flat corsage.  
  
"Relax," drawled Sirius. "Why don't you just fix it with your wand?"   
  
"Oh right," said James, pulling out his wand. In a second, the corsage was perfect; He even made a few more blossoms bloom.  
  
"It's still nothing compared to Moony's though," said James, rolling his eyes. "His shoots stars."  
  
"I wish mine shot starts," said Peter. He pulled out his wand and, with a rather sweeping wave of his arm, he managed to set the corsage that he held on fire.  
  
James and Remus burst into laughter as Peter dropped the corsage and stomped on it furiously. The end result was a charred, flattened mass of sadness. Peter picked it up mournfully and showed it to the others. The two were just calming down when the ruined corsage brought on another wave of laughter.  
  
"Not even a charm can help that thing now," laughed Remus.  
  
"Maybe you can give it to her and say its potpourri," said James when he was able to speak. "It was meant for a girl, wasn't it?"  
  
"Of course it was meant for a girl," said Peter angrily, pitching the mutilated corsage into a corner.  
  
"They're not here," said Remus, peering down the stairs and seeing no Rosemary or Lily.  
  
"What can you expect?" said Sirius, finally emeging. "They're girls."  
  
"And what's your excuse?" retorted Lily, coming up from behind him.  
  
"The same as yours," said Remus swiftly. "Where's Rosemary?"  
  
"Right behind you," said Lily.  
  
"Oh Sweet Merlin," said Sirius, looking past Remus.  
  
He turned around and saw Hermione, and what he saw knocked his breath away. He couldn't tear his eyes away; he didn't even notice Lily smilingly drag away James, Sirius, and Peter.  
  
"Well?" asked Hermione expectantly.  
  
"I - I - I - well I -"  
  
"I think it's a great power to be able to render you speechless," she teased.  
  
"I - well, what can I say? You know that you look absolutely stunning."  
  
"Yes, but it wouldn't hurt to hear it from you."  
  
"Well, you look absolutely stunning, Rosemary, beyond words." As he spoke, he took her hand and tied her corsage on.  
  
"It's beautiful," she said, smiling.  
  
"Not as beautiful as you," he said softly. "Are you sure you're feeling up to this?" he asked as they walked down the marble staircase.  
  
"Quite sure," she assured him. "Now," she said as they walked through the doors of the Great Hall, "let's have fun."  
  
He looked at her, noticing her rather different tone of voice. It was much more mischievious than he had ever heard her, and rather reminded him of Sirius. He grinned; he was, after all, a Marauder at heart.  
  
~~~~~  
  
OMG, I THANK ALL OF YOU FOR BEING SO FAITHFUL TO THIS STORY!!  
  
I must admit I was slacking off a little, but reading all of your reviews was just so energizing that I wrote this with a new zeal. Thanks to all!! 


	24. Losing Track of Time

Disclaimer: Just three words: Joanne Kathleen Rowling  
  
Love Always Finds A Way  
  
Chapter 24: Losing Track of Time  
  
When the first slow dance was sung, you could be sure that Remus and Hermione were the first ones dancing on the dance floor. It was unbelievable how many girls were jealous of the mysterious girl who just appeared out of nowhere one day and was named Charms assistant. And the number of young men who looked at Remus green with envy was uncountable.  
  
But to Hermione and Remus, all those other girls and guys didn't exist. To Hermione and Remus, only each other existed. She lay her head on his chest and listened to the soft beating of his heart, wishing with all her heart that they could stay like this forever, knowing full well that this wish could never come true.  
  
"Oh, Remus, if only -"  
  
"Don't dwell on it now, love," he answered, knowing what she was going to say. "I'm here for you."  
  
She tightened her hold on him, and he did the same to her, both holding on as if for dear life. But as they held each other, an odd feeling of de ja vous crept over her, and suddenly, it was as if she were reliving a memory.  
  
:::::memory:::::  
  
It was fifth year, and she had just been released from the hospital wing earlier that day, given a clean bill of health by Madam Pomfrey. She had been in the Gryffindor common room with Harry and Ron just a minute ago. Conversation had been dreary, Harry was dreary, and she and Ron had valiantly tried to act as normally as possible but avail. Harry just sat there, grunting in response from time to time. His attitude was understandable, of course, especially after losing the closest thing he had to a father. But he kept it all inside of him, not wanting to share any of his feelings and it was this that frustrated Hermione the most. He was acting as if he was the only one who felt anything about Sirius's death. He was being selfish, but she could excuse him. She had just needed some time away from him.  
  
She had said she needed to look up something in the library, leaving Ron with Harry. She had felt a pang of guilt at leaving Ron alone, but she needed to get out before she snapped and said something she would regret.  
  
She sped away from the common room but didn't head for the library. She needed somewhere open where she could be alone with he thoughts. Her thoughts merely consisted of Sirius. She couldn't believe he was gone, truly gone. The man who acted like a boy, could give Fred and George a run for their money, and yet had an intellect not akin but as high as hers.  
  
They could have been real friends if time would have permitted it. But he had always been on the run or in hiding. She pitied him so much, especially this last year, for Sirius wasn't one to be cooped up for so long. He wanted, no, needed to be free.  
  
She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she ran right into someone who was as full of thoughts as she was. The initial impact was enough to cause her to fall to the floor and drop all of her things all over the place.  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry, Hermione," said Remus Lupin, helping her up. "I should have looked where I was going."  
  
"What are you doing here, Professor?" she asked.  
  
"It's Remus, Hermione. I thought we established that this summer," he said as he started helping her pick up her things. "And I just had a talk with Professor Dumbledore about S -"  
  
He stopped. Saying Sirius's name was still painful.  
  
"About S-Sirius?" she asked, standing up. He looked up at her as her eyes filled up with tears. "You know, Harry's been pretty depressed," she said, trying to blink the tears away, "but that's perfectly understandable."  
  
He slowly stood up, looking at the girl who was trying to be brave for her best friend, and he was filled with a new respect for her.  
  
"So ... so he's really gone then," she said. It wasn't a question, but a mere statement, for she had finally come to the inevitable conclusion she knew she would come to.  
  
"Yes, Hermione," he said. And though it hurt to actually say it out loud, he added, both to himself and her, "He really is."  
  
She choked back a sob and started picking up her things again. If only they hadn't gone there that night. If only that veil had just been an archway with a piece of cloth hanging from it. If only Sirius could come back right now.  
  
"Hermione?" asked Remus tentatively, touching her shoulder.  
  
She looked up at him, tears streaming down her face. It was the first time she had cried for Sirius. She had always been too busy worrying about Harry, or worried that he might walk in on her crying. But now was the time for the comforter to be comforted.  
  
Remus hugged her, trying to comfort her, yet feeling slightly comforted himself as she hugged him back.  
  
"Oh, Remus, if only -"  
  
"Don't dwell on it now," he said, knowing what she was going to say. "I'm here for you."  
  
:::::end memory:::::  
  
"Rosemary?" asked a younger Remus Lupin. "Rosemary, are you all right?"  
  
She jerked back to reality. The sound of music, voices, and laughter rushed back to her ears like a whirlwind.  
  
"Remus?" she asked, lifting her head off of his chest and looking at him.  
  
"Are you all right?" he asked again.  
  
"Yes," she lied.  
  
He didn't believe her, but wisely decided not to push the matter any further.  
  
An hour later found Hermione dancing with Sirius. No, she hadn't forgotten about Remus but, after much pleading and begging, Remus had allowed Sirius one dance with the one who turned boys' heads wherever she went. Remus, standing at the refreshment table, watched the pair with an amused smile.  
  
"You dance divinely, my dear," said Sirius.  
  
"You're not so bad yourself," teased Hermione.  
  
"I could be bad if you wanted me too," said Sirius with a wicked grin.  
  
"Not if you know what's good for you," she said. "If you look over at the punch bowl, a certain someone standing right next to it is keeping a rather close watch on us, so I were you, I'd move my hand up closer to my waist."  
  
"You know, every other girl in this room would give about anything to have my hand right where it was."  
  
"I'm not like every other girl in this room," she replied.  
  
"That you aren't, Rosemary, that you aren't," he laughed. "I do believe I've met my match in you."  
  
Hermione laughed, but something inside her brain nagged her, like she had heard him utter that phrase before.  
  
:::::memory:::::  
  
"Sirius, won't you come out?" asked Hermione.  
  
It was Christmas break of her fifth year and she was spending it at Grimmauld Place. Christmas had come and gone, and taken Sirius's previously high spirits with it. He had locked himself in his room with Buckbeak and she was pounding on his door just as she had with Harry's but a week before.  
  
Remus walked up the stairs. "Hello, Hermione," he said pleasantly. He looked at the who's door she was knocking upon and added soberly, "He hasn't come out then?"  
  
"Not yet," said Hermione sadly. "He's been like this since after Christmas." She turned back to the door and knocked again urgently. "Sirius, if you don't come out of there this second, I'll -"  
  
"You'll do what?" came Sirius's sullen reply. "Blast down my door? I know you can't do magic without getting into trouble, Hermione, and I also know that you won't risk it."  
  
"If I did magic would you come out, Sirius?" asked Hermione.  
  
"Listen, I'll come out if you can open my door without magic," said Sirius boredly. "And mind, I put a several charms on it. So it'll be useless to go running for a hairpin."  
  
Hermione bit her lip in thought. Remus couldn't help but smile. Trust Sirius to befuddle the cleverest witch of the century.  
  
"What are you smiling at?" demanded Hermione.  
  
"He's just being sour," said Remus. "Why don't you just leave him alone for a while and then he'll come out."  
  
"All right -" but Hermione stopped and her eyes lit up. "Of course!"  
  
"What?" he asked.  
  
"Wait just right here, Remus! " she said gleefully. "See you in fifteen minutes!"  
  
She dashed down the stairs and out of his sight. Remus leaned against the wall opposite Sirius's door. He racked his brain, trying to figure out how in the world Hermione was going to open Sirius's door without magic.  
  
Hermione had ran out of the house without bothering to put on her coat. Besides, a coat would only complicate and reduce her chances of achieving what she set out to do.  
  
About fifteen minutes later, it was actually seventeen, Remus heard Sirius exclaim, "How the hell did you get in here, Hermione?"  
  
She didn't answer but a second later, the door was opened by Hermione herself. Remus stared at her.  
  
"How did you get in there?" he demanded.  
  
She only smiled, but her eyes sparkled. Remus, knowing he would not get the answer from her, turned to Sirius, who had stuck his head out the window.  
  
"Christ, Mione!" he said, turning to look at them. "That's three floors!"  
  
Remus gaped at her, noticing for the first time how she looked flushed and had snow flakes in her hair. "You climbed the window?"  
  
"Sirius said if I opened his door without magic he would come out," she said innocently. She turned and looked at Sirius. "You will now, won't you?"  
  
A grin tugged at Remus's mouth as he watched his best friend. He knew Sirius was having a hard time making up his mind, wanting to stay in the moody seclusion of his room but very impressed and touched by Hermione's efforts to get him out all the same.  
  
"Sirius Black, don't tell me I climbed up all that way for you to break your promise," said Hermione, slightly indignant. "Go downstairs right this instant and cheer up Harry. He's been just as bad as you."  
  
"Oh, all right," said Sirius, throwing up his hands in defeat. But they all knew he had been completely won over by Hermione. Suddenly, his gloomy features lit up as he laughed. "I do believe I've met my match in you, Hermione Granger!"  
  
:::::end memory:::::  
  
"Rosemary?" a voice jolted her back to reality. "Rosemary, you're not listening to what I'm saying."  
  
"Sorry, Sirius," she said as he steered towards the refreshment table. "I was thinking of something else."  
  
"That is clear," he said amiably as he handed her off to Remus. "Thank you for the dance, madamoiselle," he said with a flourish. "Now, I must find some of those 'other girls' who will allow my hand to travel well below their waistline," he added wickedly.  
  
Remus shook his head at Sirius. "One of these days that will get you in trouble, mate."  
  
"And until one of those days comes, I will enjoy myself as highly as possible." And with that, he took his leave of them, in search of another 'one of those girls'.  
  
"What's wrong, Rosemary?" asked Remus as he ladled out punch for her. "You look a bit... distracted."  
  
She opened her mouth, but glanced at a group of giggling girls nearby.  
  
"Perhaps in the garden?" he murmured.  
  
She nodded silently and he led her out of the castle to the garden that had been arranged for the ball. They sat down on the garden bench. Remus waited patiently for her to start.  
  
"It's odd," she said slowly. "I keep on getting these...they're sort of flashbacks. When you said something to me earlier, it reminded me of something that happened in my time. But it wasn't just a memory, it was like I was reliving it. The same thing happened with Sirius. I know it sounds crazy, but it's not like anything that's happened is normal, right?"  
  
She laughed weakly, a laugh that ended with a sigh.  
  
"It's odd," he said softly. "I've known you for the shortest time and yet I know I love you with all my heart."  
  
Hermione's throat tightened. "The shortest amount of time. . ." she echoed in a strangled voice. "I know, Remus, I know . . ."  
  
He didn't say anything, but pulled her closer to him. They sat there, losing track of time, listening to the music floated out towards them on the night air.  
  
A/N: I deserve to be burned at the stake for letting eight months slip by. And sorry for the lack of italics/other styles. The new program won't let me do anything about it. I know it makes it harder to read, but I hope you still understand it all. 


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